fc^  Missio 
Pblifies  in  Asia 


'Robert  E;S peer  4 


/Af. 


PRINCETON,    N.  J. 


Purchased  by  the  Hammill   Missionary  Fund. 

BV  3150  .S6  1898  ^ 

Speer,  Robert  E.  1867-1947. 
Missions  and  politics  in 
Asia 


Missions  and  Politics 
in  Asia 


WORKS  BY 

Robert  E.  Speer. 


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STUDENTS*  LECTURES  ON  MISSIONS 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary 
M  DCCC  XCVIII 

Missions  and  Politics 
in  Asia 


Studies  of  the  spirit  of  the  East- 
ern peoples,  the  present  making 
of  history  in  Asia,  and  the  part 
therein     of    Christian     Missions 

BY 

ROBERT  E.  SPEER 

Secretary  of   the  Presbyterian  Board  of  Foreign  Missions 


New  York      Chicago      Toronto 

Fleming   H.  Revell   Company 

M  DCCC  XCVIII 


Copyright,  1898 

BY 

Fleming  H.  Revell  Company 


TO  THE  MISSIONARIES 

IN   HAMADAN,    PERSIA 


Preface 

The  lectures  composing  this  volume  were  sug- 
gested by  the  studies  and  observation  of  an  ex- 
tended tour  in  Asia,  in  the  years  1896  and  1897. 
They  are  printed  substantially  as  they  were  de- 
livered to  the  faculty  and  students  of  Princeton 
Theological  Seminary  in  February,  1898.  Their 
object  was  to  sketch  in  broad  outline  the  spirit 
of  the  Eastern  peoples,  the  present  making  of 
history  in  Asia  and  the  part  therein  of  Christian 
Missions.  They  are  at  once  the  fruit  and  the 
ground  of  the  conviction,  vindicated  by  the 
obvious  facts  of  history  and  of  life,  that  Christ 
is  the  present  Lord  and  King  of  all  life  and  his- 
tory and  their  certain  goal 


Contents 


Lecture  I— Persia  13 

The  Present  Politics  of  Asia.  Its  interest.  Ancient  Persia.  Zoroastrian- 
ism.  The  Arab  conquest.  Its  results.  The  origin  of  Shiahism.  Its 
doctrines.  Relation  of  Church  and  State  in  Persia  unlike  their  relation 
in  Turkey.  The  doctrine  of  the  Imam.  The  Babis.  Reactions 
against  Shiahism.  The  Sufis.  Omar  Khayam.  The  Wahabis.  The 
present  situation.  The  condition  of  religion  :  (i)  Its  moral  fruits  ;  (2) 
Its  political  failure.  The  utter  ruin  of  the  country  and  its  religion. 
The  forces  shaping  the  future  :  (i)  Political ;  (2)  Missionary.  History. 
Grounds  of  toleration.  The  non-Moslem  peoples.  The  character 
of  the  missionaries. 

Lecture  II — Southern  Asia  67 

Bagdad.  Turkish  rule,  (i)  It  is  corrupt  and  should  be  ended.  (2)  Its 
oppression  of  Christians.  (3)  Its  dependence  upon  Christian  Nations 
for  existence.  (4)  Dismal  prospect.  (5)  Feebleness  of  the  Mission 
force.  Arabia.  The  influence  of  Aden.  The  problem  of  India.  The 
situation,  (i)  The  want  of  Indian  unity  at  the  time  of  the  British 
conquest.  (2)  The  conditions  and  character  of  the  conquest.  (3)  The 
unification  of  India  under  British  influence,  and  the  great  perils  thereof. 

(4)  England's  failure  to  guard  against  these  in  her  education  of  India. 

(5)  This  failure  in  a  measure  atoned  for  by  Missions.    Their  great 
power  and  influence.     Indo- China  and  Buddhism. 

Lecture  III — China  119 

The  Character  OF  THE  Chinese.  Burlingame's  view  of  it.  Its  greatness. 
Its  idiosyncrasy.  Its  impressiveness.  How  has  it  been  produced  ? 
The  isolation  of  the  Chinese.  The  education  of  the  Chinese.  The 
civil  service.  Confucianism.  The  attitude  of  China  toward  outside 
nations.  The  contact  of  China  and  the  West.  The  opening  of  the 
country.  The  nature  and  result  of  its  foreign  intercourse  since.  The 
situation  hopeless  so  far  as  concerns  (i)  the  Chinese  religions.  (2) 
China's  political  and  civil  institutions.  (3)  Western  trade  and 
diplomacy.  Hope  in  Christian  Missions.  Their  history  in  China.  Their 
obstacles,  (i)  The  difficulty  of  adjustment  to  the  Chinese  mind.  (2) 
Political  entanglements.  Mr.  Norman's  criticism  and  condemnation 
of  Missions. 

9 


Contents 
Lecture  IV — Japan  169 

The  Contrast  with  China.  Japan's  historic  debt  to  China.  Original 
features  of  Japanese  civilization.  Contact  with  the  West.  Three  stages 
of  Japanese  history  since  Perry's  visit.  "Foreign  intercourse"  the 
directing  principle.  Different  courses  of  Japan  and  China.  The  forces 
moulding  Japan.  The  place  of  Christianity  in  shaping  the  new  insti- 
stutions.  The  present  temper  of  the  people,  (i)  Industrialism.  (2) 
National  pride.  (3)  Militarism.  (4)  Nationalism  and  foreign  antag- 
onism. (5)  Moral  bewilderment  and  irreligiousness.  The  course  and 
effect  of  the  Christian  movement.  The  defects  of  the  Japanese.  The 
prospect  hopeful. 

Lecture  V— Korea  219 

The  Eastward  Movement  of  the  Eastern  Question.  Its  location  in 
Korea.  The  historic  relations  of  Korea  to  China  and  Japan.  The 
opening  of  Korea  to  other  nations.  The  part  of  Missions  therein. 
Roman  Catholic  Missions.  America's  relations  to  Korea.  Japan's 
part  in  unlocking  the  land.  The  causes  of  the  China-Japan  war.  The 
Tong  Haks.  The  sequel  of  the  war.  Russia's  unearned  prize.  The 
political  situation.  The  place  and  influence  of  the  Korean  Church. 
Its  patriotism.  The  outlook.  Conclusion.  The  bearing  of  such  a 
study  as  this  upon  Mission  method.  Its  dangers.  Its  bearing  on 
Mission  motive.    The  Kingdom  of  God  the  goal. 


10 


LECTURE  I 

Persia 


11 


Persia,  that  imaginary  seat  of  Oriental  splendor  !  that  land 
of  poets  and  roses  !  that  cradle  of  mankind,  that  tin  con  laminated 
source  of  Eastern  manners  lay  before  me.  .  .  .  I  will  not 
say  that  all  my  dreams  were  realized ;  for  perhaps  no  country  in 
the  world  less  comes  up  to  one^s  expectations  than  Persia, — whether 
in  the  beauties  of  nature,  or  the  riches  and  magnificence  of  its 
inhabitants.     .     .     . 

A  distinct  line  must  ever  be  drawn  between  "  the  nations  who 
wear  the  hat  and  those  who  wear  the  beard'''' ;  and  they  must  ever 
hold  each  other's  stories  improbable,  until  a  more  general  inter- 
course of  common  life  takes  place  between  them.  What  is  moral 
and  virtuous  with  the  one,  is  wickedness  with  the  other, — what 
the  Christian  reviles  as  abominable,  is  by  the  Mohajnmedan 
held  sacred.  Although  the  contrast  between  their  respective 
manners  may  be  very  amusing,  still  it  is  most  certain  that  the 
former  will  ever  feel  devoutly  grateful  that  he  is  neither  subject 
to  the  Mohammedan  rule,  nor  educated  in  Mohainmedan  prin- 
ciples;  whilst  the  latter,  in  his  turn,  looking  upon  the  rest  of 
mankind  as  unclean  infidels,  will  continue  to  hold  fast  to  his 
bigoted  persuasion  until  some  powerful  interposition  of  Provi- 
dence shall  dispel  the  moral  and  intellectual  darkness  which,  at 
present,  overhangs  so  large  a  portion  of  the  Asiatic  world. 

James  Morier,  Hajji  Baba  of  Ispahan. 


12 


LECTURE  I 

PERSIA 

"Praise  be  to  God,  the  Lord  of  all  creatures; 
the  most  merciful,  the  king  of  the  day  of  judg- 
ment. Thee  do  we  worship,  and  of  thee  do  we 
beg  assistance.  Direct  us  in  the  right  way,  in 
the  way  of  those  to  whom  thou  hast  been  gra- 
cious; not  of  those  against  whom  thou  art  in- 
censed, nor  of  those  who  go  astray."  Though 
not  chronologically  first,  this  is  the  opening  Sura 
of  the  Koran, ^  and  it  is  the  characteristic  note  of 
the  noblest  assertion  ever  made  by  man  of  the 
sovereignty  of  God,  and  of  His  lordship  over  hu- 
man history, — ''The  Lord  of  all  creatures.  .  .  . 
The  king  of  the  day  of  judgment  .  .  .  the  most 
high;  who  hath  created  and  completely  formed 
His  creatures;  and  who  determineth  them  to  va- 
rious ends  and  directeth  them  to  attain  the  same" 
(Sura  Ixvii.).  And  the  words  with  which  the 
Koran  begins,  suggest  the  thought  which  will 
give  shape  and  bounds  to  what  will  be  said  in 
these  lectures.  I  believe  in  the  Lord,  the  living, 
the  powerful,  in  whose  hand  our  life  is,  and  by 

*  Sale's  Koran,  chap.  I. 
13 


Missions  and  Politics 

whom  the  courses  of  men  and  of  nations  are 
shaped,  as  in  the  East  the  water  brooks  are 
turned  by  the  husbandman  whithersoever  he 
will.  And  I  wish  to  trace  briefly  the  play  of  the 
forces  that  are  now  working  out  in  Asia  the  de- 
signs of  God. 

For  great  history  is  making  in  the  East,  no 
longer  unchangeable.  Its  life  is  astir  with  new 
movement.  The  old  forms  are  not  gone.  They 
linger  still  with  strong  tenacity,  vitalized  often  by 
the  touch  of  the  new  influences;  but  the  tides 
that  swept  out  of  Asia  thirty  centuries  ago, 
purified,  filled  with  new  energy,  "turn  again 
home."  And  as  they  wake  the  old  peoples  to 
a  new  youth,  a  fresh  chapter  of  human  history 
begins.  We  call  it  only  politics,  as  these  forces 
lock  in  Asia.  But  ''politics,"  as  Mr.  Freeman 
said  'Ms  present  history,  and  history  is  past 
politics." 

No  history  has  ever  been  greater  than  that 
which  is  making  now.  Our  times  are  prosaic 
only  to  men  of  prosaic  minds.  The  romance 
which  hangs  over  Cyrus  and  Darius  and  Arta- 
xerxes,  over  Jenghiz  Khan  and  his  sons,  and  that 
great  city  where 

"  Alph,  the  sacred  river  ran 
Through  caverns  measureless  to  man 
Down  to  a  sunless  sea," 

14 


Persia 

over  Saracen,  Mogul  and  Sikh;  Khaled,  Akbar 
and  Runjit  Singh,  is  as  the  play  of  children  be- 
side the  stern  struggle  of  our  own  day  in  Asia. 
Systems  of  thought  and  morals  and  social  cus- 
tom which  were  old  before  we  were  peoples, 
and  which  have  set  themselves  never  to  be 
moved,  have  been  challenged  and  shaken.  Com- 
merce, diplomacy,  civilization  have  violated  their 
repose.  Righteousness  has  demanded  a  reckon- 
ing of  them.  And  Christianity,  of  which  these 
are  the  children,  is  calmly  confronting  them  from 
foundations  which  cannot  be  removed,  while  new 
foundations  are  laid  for  her  on  their  enlarging 
ruins.  It  is  a  privilege  to  live  with  open  eyes  in 
the  age  of  such  a  conflict,  to  watch  the  move- 
ments of  the  struggle,  to  hear  the  tumult  of  the 
chariots  and  the  horsemen,  and  to  discern  in 
all,  the  master  hand  of  the  Lord,  "the  Lord  of 
all  creatures,  the  King  of  the  day  of  judgment 
.  .  .  who  determineth  His  creatures  to  vari- 
ous ends  and  directeth  them  to  attain  the  same." 
It  is  better  than  "a  crush  of  worlds." 

For  out  of  this  struggle  a  new  earth  is  coming. 
What  we  are  watching  are  not  so  much  death 
gasps  as  birth  throes, — the  pangs  of  a  mighty 
labor  on  the  old  mother  Asia.  And  I  believe  that 
what  she  has  borne  is  naught  in  comparison  with 

15 


Missions  and  Politics 

what  she  is  yet  to  bear.  That  it  is  a  construc- 
tive, a  creative  time  some  may  fail  to  see  who 
are  "blind,  unable  to  discern  that  which  is  afar 
off"  (2  Peter  i.  9).  But  if  our  eyes  are  opened, 
we  shall  see 

"  The  new  age  that  stands  as  yet, 
Half  built  against  the  sky, 
Open  to  every  threat 

Of  storms  that  clamor  by  : 
While  scaffolding  veils  the  walls. 
And  dim  dust  floats  and  falls, 
As  moving  to  and  fro,  their  tasks  the  masons  ply." 

With  this  idea  dominating  our  thought,  I  pro- 
pose to  speak  to-day  of  Persia  and  Islam,  judging 
that  the  view  of  which  I  have  spoken  will  ex- 
clude nothing  that  is  of  human  interest. 

Of  what  Persia  was  before  she  fell  under  Islam 
it  is  not  necessary  to  speak.  The  days  of  her 
glory  and  world-dominion  are  far,  far  off  from 
the  poor  political  ruin  of  to-day,  and  the  powers 
that  made  her  greatness  were  spent  long  before 
the  Chosroes  succeeded  to  the  power  of  the 
Achemenians,  the  Seleucidae,  the  Arsacidae  and 
the  Sassanians  and  the  long  struggle  with  Her- 
aclius  had  drained  the  land  of  its  energy  and  re- 
sources. The  Persia  with  which  we  deal  to-day 
is  the  product  of  the  Mohammedan  conquest  and 
we  need  not  go  beyond  that  for  an  understand- 
ing of  it. 

16 


Persia 

It  was  in  the  seventh  century  that  the  Arabian 
armies  poured  up  from  the  Southwest  into  the 
Mesopotamian  plains  to  finish  the  work  that  the 
Roman  Emperor  Heraclius  had  begun,  and  to 
open  the  last  chapter  of  the  great  degeneracy.  I 
commend  to  you  the  romance  of  that  great 
tragedy  as  it  is  set  forth  in  Muir's  Annals  of  the 
Early  Caliphate.  Just  one  year  ago  we  rode  over 
the  hills  and  valleys  and  plains  where  this  strug- 
gle between  the  last  of  the  Chosroes  and  the  gen- 
erals of  Mohammed  and  Omar  surged  to  and  fro, 
yet  pressed  ever  Eastward.  It  was  a  wonderful 
battleground.  Every  farsakh  of  the  weary  way 
was  eloquent  with  appeal  from  the  great  past  to 
the  armies  of  Yezdegird.  Over  this  road  Cyrus 
and  Darius  had  led  their  hosts.  On  the  craggy 
cliffs  of  Beseitun  past  which  the  Saracens  drove 
the  Persians,  were  the  inscriptions  of  Darius, 
telling  of  his  world-wide  victories,  and  showing 
to  the  desperate  troops  as  they  passed,  the  giant 
figure  with  his  foot  on  the  neck  of  a  captive,  and 
his  subjugated  foes  chained  throat  to  throat  be- 
fore him.  Yet  cut  on  the  rocks  below,  were  the 
name  of  Alexander  and  royal  figures  plain 
enough  then  to  remind  the  fugitives  that  ten  cen- 
turies before  another  conquerer  had  possessed 

their  land.     The  mounds  and  the  temples  of  their 
17 


Missions  and  Politics 

fire-worship  rose  here  and  there  in  the  plains. 
They  looked  back  as  they  fled  upon  the  glorious 
white  stone  palace  at  Kasr-i-shirin,  and  saw  the 
rough  Arabs  plunder  its  beauties.  One  evening, 
just  one  year  ago,  as  the  sun  was  setting  behind 
hills  all  purple  and  saffron,  save  as  they  were 
white-crested  with  snow,  we  stood  in  the  ruins 
of  this  noble  palace,  and  saw  again  the  old  days 
when  it  had  stood  as 

"  A  dwelling  of  kings,  ere  the  world  was  waxen  old. 
Dukes  were  the  doorwards  there,  and  the  roof  was  thatched  with  gold." 

And  I  thought  how  the  gleam  of  it  must  have 
been  as  the  farewell  of  the  past  to  Yezdegird. 
Up  through  the  passes  and  over  the  Zagros  ranges 
they  fled,  until  on  the  plains  of  Nehavend,  under 
the  pure,  white  peaks  of  Elvend,  and  across  the 
hills  from  Ecbatana,  in  641,  the  decisive  issue  was 
joined  and  Omar's  captain  Nowan  sent  word 
back  to  his  master  that  Persia  was  the  Prophet's. 
The  first  fruit  of  the  Arab  conquest  was  the 
destruction  of  Zoroastrianism.  There  were  some 
admirable  things  in  Zoroastrianism.  ''It  as- 
cribed no  immoral  attributes  to  the  object  of 
worship.  ...  It  sanctioned  no  immoral 
acts  as  a  part  of  worship.  None  of  the  pre- 
scribed forms  of  worship  is  marked  by  cruelty. 

In  the  great  contest  between  light  and  dark- 
18 


Persia 

ness,  the  Avesta  exhorts  the  true  worshipper 
not  to  remain  passive,  but  to  contend  with  all 
his  might  against  the  productions  of  the  Evil 
Principle.  There  is  an  absence  of  image  wor- 
ship, and  the  Avesta  never  despairs  of  the 
future  of  humanity ;  it  affirms  the  final  victory  of 
good  over  evil."^  But  all  this  and  vastly  more 
could  be  said  of  Mohammedanism,  and  that 
vigorous  and  uncompromising  system  swept  up 
against  the  old  Persian  religion  like  a  storm  and 
well-nigh  obliterated  it.  There  are  eight  times  as 
many  Parsis  now  in  the  Bombay  Presidency  as 
there  are  in  the  land  of  their  origin.  In  Persia 
there  are  less  than  10,000  of  them;  a  few  in 
Teheran,  where  the  Tower  of  Silence  near  ancient 
Rhei  is  still  the  place  of  exposure  of  their  dead, 
but  most  of  them  in  Kirman  and  at  Yezd,  where 
there  are  said  to  be  four  altars  which  keep  alive 
the  sacred  flame,  as  Moore  recalls  in  his  line, 

"Yezd's  eternal  mansion  of  the  fire." 

There  are  elements  of  fire-worship  in  the  rites  of 
the  Ali  Illahees,  an  heretical  and  eclectic  Moslem 
sect  that  has  enrolled  Henry  Martyn  and  David 
Livingstone  among  its  avatars,  and  whose  sacra- 
ment is  a  communion  of  fire  eating.  And  there 
are  traces  of  the  old  worship  of  the  sun  in  private 

•  Mitchell's  Zend  Avesta  and  the  Religion  of  the  Parsis,  p.  49. 
19 


Missions  and  Politics 

and  common  life.  It  is  customary  in  many  places 
when  a  light  is  brought  into  a  room,  to  salute  it 
as  we  would  a  person,  while  in  the  cities  where 
members  of  the  royal  Kajar  family  reside,  the  old 
Kajar  music  sounding  like  a  callithumpian  sere- 
nade bursts  forth  from  some  royal  palace  at  the 
rising  or  the  setting  of  the  sun.  The  few  Zo- 
roastrians  who  remain  are  under  as  grievous  disa- 
bilities as  the  Christians,  however.  The  stern, 
relentless  faith  of  the  Prophet  made  clean  work 
and  did  not  play  with  compromise. 

The  second  fruit  of  the  Arab  conquest  was  the 
destruction  of  independence.  For  nine  centuries, 
Saracen,  Tartar  and  Turkish  dynasties,  all  alien, 
ruled  over  the  land.  It  was  not  a  barren  pe- 
riod. The  hearts  of  the  subject  people  were 
cheered  by  Firdousi,  Hafiz  and  Omar  Khayam; 
and  Avicenna,  whose  tomb  is  still  in  good  re- 
pair at  Hamadan,  gave  Persia  a  name  for  medi- 
cal science.  When  in  these  centuries,  however, 
hope  ever  kindled,  it  kindled  but  to  be  swept 
away  by  some  new  dynasty,  or  by  the  unique 
triumphs  of  Jenghis  Khan  and  his  sons,  or  Tam- 
erlane, until  in  the  fifteenth  century,  a  political 
movement  grew  out  of  the  Sunnee-Shiah  con- 
troversy, which  ended  in  the  independence  of 

Persia. 

20 


Persia 

An  understanding  of  this  controversy  is  essen- 
tial to  any  insight  into  Persian  history  since  the 
Arab  invasions,  and  also  to  an  appreciation  of 
the  present  and  future  developments  of  both  re- 
ligion and  politics  in  Turkey,  Persia  and  India. 

The  Shiah  schism  arose  in  the  early  days  of 
Islam.  The  name  Shiah  means  sectaries.^  Mo- 
hammedanism has  never  been  really  one.  It 
seems  strange,  as  Sale  suggests,  that  Spinoza, 
even  if  ignorant  of  the  general  fact  of  its  multi- 
tudinous heresies,  should  have  been  ignorant  of 
this  notorious  division,  and  should  "have  as- 
signed as  the  reason  for  preferring  the  order  of 
the  Mohammedan  Church  to  that  of  the  Roman, 
that  there  have  arisen  no  schisms  in  the  former 
since  its  birth."  The  same  error  is  frequently 
made,  however,  in  our  own  day.  The  unity  of 
Islam  is  often  held  up  as  a  rebuke  to  divided 
Christendom.  But  Mohammedans  would  not  be 
grateful  for  this  conspicuousness.  They  say 
*'The  Magians  are  divided  into  seventy  sects, 
the  Jews  into  seventy-one,  the  Christians  into 
seventy-two,  and  the  Moslems  into  seventy- 
three,  as  Mohammed  had  foretold."  Even  in 
schism  Islam  claims  precedence.  Moreover  its 
devotees   have  passed  beyond  Christendom  in 

»  Benjamin's  Pers/a  and  the  Persians,  Boston  Ed.,  1887,  chaps,  xii.,  xiii. 

21 


Missions  and  Politics 

this,  that  only  one  sect  is  entitled  to  salvation  i»n 
their  view,  each  sect  holding  the  others  damna- 
ble. Historically  almost  innumerable  sects  have 
been  developed,  of  which  the  Sunnees  and 
Shiahs  with  their  subdivisions,  and  the  Mataz- 
alites,  the  Safatians  and  Kharejites  were  the  prin- 
cipal. 

The  origin  of  their  sect  explains  something  of 
the  deep  and  patriotic  devotion  of  the  Shiahs  to 
their  heroes.  The  breech  with  the  orthodox 
body  arose  out  of  a  civil  war.  Ali,  the  cousin 
of  Mohammed,  married  his  daughter  Fatima,  and 
was  the  fourth  caliph  of  Islam,  Othman,  Omar 
and  Abu  Bekr  intervening  between  him  and  the 
Prophet.  Sell  quotes  the  description  which  pic- 
tures him  as  "the  last  and  worthiest  of  the 
primitive  Mussulmans  who  imbibed  his  reli- 
gious enthusiasm  from  companionship  with  the 
Prophet  himself,  and  who  followed  to  the  last 
the  simplicity  of  his  character  ; "  and  adds,  *'  He 
was  a  man  calculated  by  his  earnest  devotion  to 
the  Prophet  and  his  own  natural  graces  to  win, 
as  he  has  done,  the  admiration  of  succeeding 
generations."  Factional  contentions  came  to  an 
issue  in  his  caliphate,  however,  and  he  was  as- 
sassinated in  a  mosque  at  Kufa.  One  of  his  two 
sons,  Hasan,  relinquished  his  claim  to  the  succes- 

22 


Persia 

sion  to  Muavia,  who  had  been  his  father's  rival. 
To  get  Hasan  out  of  the  way,  however,  he  was 
poisoned  by  his  own  wife.  Muavia's  son  suc- 
ceeded him,  and  saw  the  house  of  Ali  destroyed 
in  his  second  son,  Hussein,  who  was  slain  near 
Kerbela,  where  the  enemy  killed  off  his  small 
band  of  companions  until  he  and  his  little  son 
alone  were  left.  The  little  boy  was  slain  by  an 
arrow  which  pierced  his  ear.  "We  came  from 
God  and  we  return  to  Him,"  said  the  grandson 
of  the  Prophet,  and  kneeling  down  to  drink  of 
the  Euphrates,  was  struck  with  an  arrow  in  the 
mouth,  and  fell  forward  wounded  with  many 
wounds.  And  thus  was  the  great  schism 
born.^ 

From  that  day  to  this,  Sunnee  and  Shiah  have 
had  only  hate  for  one  another.  "Who  is  that?" 
we  asked  our  Persian  servant,  as  a  large  Turk 
passed  through  our  courtyard  at  Khanikin,  on 
the  Turkish  side  of  the  frontier.  "One  dog," 
was  the  laconic  reply.  "Englishman  good," 
said  the  same  man  later,  "Persian  fair,  Osmanli 
foul."  "Whoso  goes  over  the  border,"  say  the 
Persians  of  Ardalan,  "goes  under  the  ground." 
Each  year  the  fast  of  Moharrem  keeps  alive  in 
Shiah  breasts  the  memories  of  the  wrongs  of  the 

*  Sell's  Faith  of  Islam,  Ed.,  1880,  pp.  73,  74. 

23 


Missions  and  Politics 

house  of  Ali.  Readers  relate  the  story  of  the 
tragedies.  Flagellants,  dripping  with  blood  and 
lacerated  with  scorpions,  cry  aloud  with  grief, 
and  the  multitudes  looking  on  bewail  the  foul 
treacheries,  and  heat  to  fresh  passion  the  long 
fostered  hate  of  the  Sunnee/  Each  year  thou- 
sands and  tens  of  thousands  flock  to  Kerbela, 
not  far  from  Babylon  and  Bagdad,  to  worship  at 
the  shrine  of  the  martyred  Hussein,  and  to  bury 
the  bones  of  their  dead  in  the  sacred  soil. 

The  chief  points  of  difference  between  the 
Sunnees  and  Shiahs  cannot  be  better  summar- 
ized than  in  the  statement  of  Sale,'^  *'  i.  That  the 
Shiahs  reject  Abu  Bekr,  Omar  and  Othman,  the 
first  three  caliphs,  as  usurpers  and  intruders; 
whereas  the  Sunnees  acknowledge  and  respect 
them  as  rightful  Imams.  2.  The  Shiahs  prefer 
Ali  to  Mohammed,  or  at  least  esteem  the  two 
equal;  but  the  Sunnees  admit  neither  Ali  nor  any 
of  the  prophets  to  be  equal  to  Mohammed.  3. 
The  Sunnees  charge  the  Shiahs  with  corrupting 
the  Koran  and  neglecting  its  precepts,  and  the 
Shiahs  retort  the  same  charge  on  the  Sunnees. 
4.  The  Sunnees  receive  the  Sunna  (whence  their 
name)  or  book  of  traditions  of  their  Prophet,  as 

*  Benjamin's  Persia  and  the  Persians^  Boston  Ed.,  chap.  xiii. 
^  Sale's  Koran,  Prelim.  Discourse,  sec.  viii. 

24 


Persia 

of  canonical  authority;  whereas  the  Shiahs  re- 
ject it  as  apocryphal  and  unworthy  of  credit." 

Dropping  out  of  comparison  for  an  instant,  the 
Sunnee  belief,  a  precise  statement  of  the  funda- 
mental tenets  of  Shiahism  would  include:  belief 
in  the  unity  of  God;  belief  in  the  divine  mission 
of  all  the  prophets,  and,  that  Mohammed  is  the 
chief  of  all;  the  admissions  that  God  is  just, 
and  that  Ali  is  next  in  order  after  Mohammed, 
that  Ali's  descendants  from  Hasan  to  Mahdi,  the 
twelfth  Imam,  are  his  true  successors,  and  that 
all  of  them  in  character,  position  and  dignity  are 
raised  far  above  all  other  Moslems. 

The  Persians  early  became  adherents  of  the 
Shiah  sect.^  For  centuries  they  were  ruled  over 
by  Sunnee  kings.  The  religious  breach  con- 
stantly widened.  Their  old  Arab  conquerors 
were  also  members  of  the  Sunnee  body.  At 
the  very  close  of  the  fifteenth  century,  the 
Sunnee  yoke  was  broken,  and  Ismail  established 
the  Sefavean  dynasty,  which  was  both  Shiah 
and  Persian.  Under  his  fourth  successor.  Shah 
Abbas,  the  Great,  who  ascended  the  throne  in 
1586,  Persia  rose  into  golden  days  again.  The 
vitality  of  the  people  which  had  never  been 
wholly  crushed,  rallied,  and   bridges,  caravan- 

•  Haines's  Islam  as  a  Missionary  Religion,  p.  66. 

25 


Missions  and  Politics 

saries  and  countless  ruins  are  now  traced  back 
by  the  people  to  Shah  Abbas.  Mohammed,  an 
Afghan,  overthrew  the  Sefavean  dynasty  in  1722, 
but  fell  in  1727  before  Nadir,  a  Persian  soldier, 
who  proclaimed  himself  king,  defeated  the 
Turks,  conquered  Afghanistan,  captured  Delhi, 
married  his  son  to  the  daughter  of  the  Mogul 
Emperor  in  India,  and  came  back  with  the  fa- 
mous peacock  throne  to  Teheran.  The  present 
dynasty  of  Kajars,  Shiahs  but  not  Persians,  Turks 
rather  from  the  Northeast,  and  not  of  Osmanli 
stock,  was  set  up  by  Agha  Mohammed  Khan  in 
1794.  The  Kajars  have  probably  done  as  much 
for  Persia  as  any  dynasty  could  that  might  have 
been  native  to  the  soil,  but  they  have  been,  and 
this  is  a  vital  point,  in  nowise  related  to  the  line 
of  Ali. 

Let  us  note  the  bearing  of  these  two  facts: — 
first,  that  the  Persians  are  Shiahs,  and  second, 
that  their  ruling  dynasty  is  non-Imamic,  i.  e.,  not 
of  the  line  of  Ali,  upon  the  political  and  religious 
conditions  of  Asia,  and  indeed  upon  the  whole 
Eastern  Question. 

The  chief  point  to  be  noted  is,  that  the  Shiahs 
believe  Ali  to  have  been  lawful  caliph  and  Imam, 
and  hold  that  the  supreme  authority  in  all  things 
spiritual  and  temporal,  State  no  less  than  Church, 

26 


Persia 

of  right  belongs  to  his  descendants.  Their  de- 
votion to  Ali  exceeds  all  bounds.  In  one  of  the 
sanctuaries  of  the  great  mosque  at  Kum,  which 
is  the  Westminster  Abbey  of  Persia,  is  this  in- 
scription to  him,  "Oh,  inexpressible  man!  By 
thee  in  truth  is  nature  enriched  and  adorned! 
Had  not  thy  perfect  self  been  in  the  Creator's 
thought.  Eve  had  remained  forever  a  virgin  and 
Adam  a  bachelor."  Now  All's  descendants  en- 
joy no  such  rights  in  Persia  as  the  tenets  of 
Shiahism  claim  for  them.  The  civil  power  is  in 
the  hands  of  the  Kajar  dynasty,  and  the  Kajars 
are  in  nowise  connected  with  Ali.  According 
to  the  strict  faith  of  the  Shiahs,  they  are  usurpers 
of  authority  belonging  to  All's  descendants,  in 
whose  hands  is  the  ecclesiastical  power.  There 
is,  accordingly,  a  real  separation  between  Church 
and  State  in  Persia,  more  real  in  some  senses 
than  exists  in  France  or  England  or  Germany  or 
Russia.  In  Islam,  using  the  word  in  its  popular 
sense,  such  a  condition  as  this  is  a  logical  con- 
tradiction. Mohammed's  Islam,  the  Islam  of  the 
caliphs  was  the  State.  It  grew  by  appealing  to 
those  motives  which  only  civil  power  could 
satisfy,  and  by  making  such  promises  as  only 
as    a    political  and   military   organization   Islam 

could  fulfill.     Deprived  of  the  power  of  j^opeal- 
27 


Missions  and  Politics 

ing  to  such  motives  and  of  making  such  prom- 
ises, and  reduced  to  a  religion  merely,  Islam 
ceases  to  be  Islam.  To  this  condition  Persian 
Mohammedanism  is  practically  reduced.  It  is 
only  a  religion.  It  is  the  established  religion. 
The  State  does  for  it  some  things  which  Chris- 
tian States  with  established  religions  do  not  do 
for  them ;  but  it  does  not  subsidize  it  financially 
as  some  Christian  States  do.  But  Mohammedan- 
ism cannot  endure,  robbed  of  its  political  char- 
acter. It  may  become  a  modified,  modernized 
Islam,  a  surrender  to  the  fate  of  God;  but  it 
will  not  be  the  old  fiery,  irresistible  tempest 
that  burst  out  of  Arabia  and  shook  the  nations. 
It  will  have  to  take  its  place  among  the  world's 
religions,  not  as  a  political  institution,  but  as  a 
system  of  morals  and  faith.  This  is  practically 
what  it  has  had  to  do  in  Persia.  It  controls  the 
passage  of  property,  and  still  possesses  many 
political  advantages  including  a  good  share  of 
the  judiciary  functions  of  government,  but  it 
has  been  in  conflict  rather  than  in  partnership 
with  the  Kajar  dynasty.^  The  civil  power  has 
by  no  means  triumphed  over  it.  There  are  even 
indications  that  the  present  Shah  may  surrender 
something  of  what  his  father  had  gained  in  his 

•  Benjamin's  Persia  and  the  Persians,  Boston  Ed.,  1887,  chap.  xv. 


Persia 

long  conflict  with  the  Mollahs.  But  Islam  has 
been  obliged  radically  to  change  its  character, 
and  Shiah  Mohammedanism  must  become  less 
and  less  like  the  Mohammedanism  of  Abu  Bekr 
and  the  world  conquering  caliphs,  and  more  and 
more  a  religion  simply,  with  no  appeal  save  to 
the  conscience  and  intellect  of  man,  perhaps 
rather  to  his  fanaticism  and  bigotry. 

It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that  even  if  the  Shiah 
ecclesiastics  should  wish  to  enter  into  compact 
with  the  Turks  or  with  the  Mohammedans  of  In- 
dia to  establish  a  united  Islam,  with  which  to 
confront  the  encroachments  of  the  Christian  Na- 
tions upon  the  last  strongholds  of  the  Faith,  they 
would  be  unable  to  deliver  the  Persian  civil  power 
to  such  a  league.  There  is  but  little  likelihood  of 
their  desire,  however,  to  enter  into  union  or  com- 
pact with  the  Sunnees.  Their  differences  are  too 
great.  They  blame  the  present  Sunnees  for  the 
slaughter  of  Ali  and  his  sons.  They  charge  the 
present  Sunnees  with  usurpation.  And  they  are 
the  more  alienated  by  the  device  by  which  the 
Turk  has  saved  Sunnee  Mohammedanism  from 
the  mortal  separation  of  the  civil  and  ecclesias- 
tical power  which  has  befallen  the  Mohammed- 
anism of  the  Shiahs,  and  of  the  way  this  device 

collides  with  the  most  vital  and  precious  principle 
29 


Missions  and  Politics 

of  the  Shiahs,  namely  their  doctrine  of  their  Imam 
or  Spiritual  and  Absolute  Head. 

In  Turkey,  the  head  of  Church  and  State  is  one. 
The  Sultan  is  also  the  caliph.  It  is  clearly  laid 
down  in  Mohammedan  law  that  the  caliph  must  be 
of  the  tribe  of  the  Koreish,  to  which  the  Prophet 
belonged.  And  Abdul  Hamid  is  neither  Koreish 
nor  Arab  at  all,  but  he  claims  the  caliphate.  It 
came  about  in  this  way.  After  the  dismal  end  of 
the  Abbassid  dynasty  of  caliphs  in  Bagdad  in  1258, 
a  mock  caliphate  was  set  up  and  maintained  in 
Egypt.  When  Selim  I.,  Sultan  of  the  Osmanli 
Turks  conquered  Egypt  in  1 5 1 6,  the  mock  caliphate 
came  to  an  end,  and  Muttawakkil  Billal,  the  last 
of  the  puppet  caliphs  of  Egypt,  and  a  descendant 
from  the  thirty-fifth  caliph  of  Bagdad,  surrendered 
his  supposed  rights  to  Suleiman,  the  successor  of 
Selim.  So  to  this  day  the  Osmanli  sultans,  of 
whom  Abdul  Hamid  is  the  thirty-fourth,  have 
claimed  to  be  the  spiritual  as  well  as  the  political 
successors  of  Mohammed.  The  claim  is  a  poor 
dream.  The  Arabs  and  Moors  scorn  it.^  The 
Hindus  mock  at  it,  and  the  Persians  detest  it. 
Those  apologists  for  England's  inactivity  during 
the  Armenian  massacres,  and  her  breach  of  faith 
with  the  simple  people  for  whom  she  had  sol- 

*  Muir's  Caliphate^  London  Ed.,  1892,  pp.  589-594. 
30 


Persia 

emnly  bound  herself  by  the  treaty  of  Berlin, 
whose  terms  she  had  dictated,  to  secure  reforms, 
on  the  ground  that  her  hostility  toward  the  Sul- 
tan would  lead  to  an  uprising  in  India,  were  de- 
ceived. The  India  Mohammedans  are  not  parti- 
sans of  the  Sultan,  nor  do  they  recognize  the  va- 
lidity of  the  fiction  by  which  he  claims  to  be  not 
only  civil  head  of  the  Osmanli  State,  but  also 
spiritual  head  of  the  Mohammedan  Church. 

But  most  of  all  do  the  Persian  Shiahs  reject  the 
idea,  because  it  collides  with  their  loyalty  to  Ali, 
and  their  favorite  doctrine  of  the  Imam.  The 
word  Imam  comes  from  an  Arabic  word  meaning 
to  aim  at,  to  follow  after,  and  signifies  accord- 
ingly, leader  or  exemplar.  Mohammed  of  course 
was  the  first  great  leader.  Then  came  Ali,  and 
the  Shiahs  hold  that  the  leadership,  the  Imamat, 
must  continue  in  and  be  confined  to  his  line,  and 
that  the  whole  essence  of  religion  is  devotion  to 
the  rightful  Imam.  A  Persian  hymn  shows  the 
depth  of  this  sentiment  toward  Ali  and  the 
Imams: 

"  Mysterious  being  !  none  can  tell 
The  attributes  in  thee  that  dwell ; 
None  can  thine  essence  comprehend  ; 
To  thee  should  every  mortal  bend — 
For  'tis  by  thee  that  man  is  given 
To  know  the  high  behests  of  heaven." 


31 


Missions  and  Politics 

The  Shiahs  hold  that  "the  hnam  is  the  successor 
of  the  Prophet,  adorned  with  all  the  qualities 
which  he  possessed,  wiser  than  the  most  learned 
men  of  the  age,  holier  than  the  most  pious;  free 
from  all  sin  original  and  active.  His  authority  is 
the  authority  of  God."  His  body  is  so  pure  and 
delicate  as  to  cast  no  shadow.  He  is  the  su- 
preme pontiff,  the  vicar  of  God  on  earth.  ''The 
Koran,  the  infallible  book,  is  plussed  by  the 
Imam,  the  infallible  man."^ 

On  this  doctrine  of  the  Imam  the  Shiahs  are 
divided  into  two  parties.  I  speak  of  them  be- 
cause they  also  serve  to  explain  modern  history 
and  the  movement  of  Christianity  in  Asia  and 
Africa.  The  Imamites  reckoning  Ali  as  the  first, 
believe  in  twelve  Imams,  the  last  of  whom  Abul 
Kasim,  is  still  alive,  though  concealed,  and  bears 
the  name  of  Al  Mahdi,  "the  guided."  The 
Ismailians  believe  that  since  the  sixth  Imam,  the 
Imams  have  been  concealed.  The  Imam  is  in  ex- 
istence now,  but  concealed.  There  are  always 
those  who  say,  "Next  year  the  Mahdi  will  ap- 
pear." There  is  fine  soil  in  this  belief  for  a  crop 
of  disturbances  and  small  fanaticisms  of  which 
we  have  not  seen  the  last.  It  explains  many 
things  about  Moslem  lands,  and  makes  move- 

»  Sell's  Faith  of  Islam,  Edition,  1880,  pp.  76,  78. 

32 


Persia 

ments  like  modern  Babism  intelligible.  The 
founder  of  this  sect,  Mirza  Ali  Mohammed,  the 
Bab,  was  the  son  of  a  Shiraz  grocer,  born  in  1819 
or  1820.  His  manifestation  as  a  prophet  was  in 
1844  at  Bushire.  His  name  of  Bab,  or  gate,  sig- 
nified his  claim  to  be  the  one  through  whom 
alone  knowledge  of  the  twelfth  Imam  Mahdi 
could  be  attained.  His  pretensions  grew  apace 
and  he  soon  advanced  himself  as  the  Mahdi, 
then  as  a  re-incarnation  of  the  Prophet,  then  as  a 
Revelation  or  Incarnation  of  God  Himself.  The 
Bab  was  shot  at  Tabriz  in  1850,  and  the  Babis, 
his  followers,  removed  to  Bagdad.  Thence  the 
Turkish  government  removed  them  to  Constan- 
tinople and  then  to  Adrianople  in  1866.  One  of 
them  Mirza  Hussein  Ali,  or  Beha,  announced 
himself  as  the  Mahdi,  whom  the  Bab  had  fore- 
told. This  led  to  a  dissension  and  bloody 
schism,  ending  in  the  permanent  division  of  the 
Babis,  with  two  prophets,  Beha  at  Acre,  and  his 
younger  brother  at  Cyprus,  where  the  British 
government  pensioned  him.  There  are  now 
supposed  to  be  between  half  a  million  and  a 
million  Babis  in  Persia,  nineteen-twentieths  of 
them  Behais,  or  of  the  Beha  party.  In  spite  of 
martyrdom  and  the  fiercest  persecution  the  sect 
has  grown,  until  now  its  leader  having  given  it  a 


Missions  and  Politics 

dispensation  to  conceal,  oppression  is  about  at  an 
end,  though  the  Behais  are  secretive  and  obscur- 
ist  still.  The  sect  represents  a  revolt  against  the 
tyranny  and  fanaticism  of  the  Koran  and  the  lax- 
ity of  Moslem  practice,  though  allowing  wine 
drinking  and  other  leniencies.  The  Bab  advo- 
cated also  the  removal  of  the  veil  by  women, 
the  disestablishment  of  the  harem,  and  war 
against  mendicancy.  Doctrinely  the  Beha  move- 
ment displaces  Mohammed  and  the  Koran,  and 
regards  God  as  a  spiritual  essence  and  not  a  per- 
son, while  it  yet  compromises  and  conceals  and 
now  no  longer  wars  against  Shiahism. 

As  illustrated  by  this  Babi  movement,  from  the 
orthodox  beliefs  of  the  Shiahs  there  have  been 
reactions,  three  of  which  among  others  have  an 
influence  in  the  present  missionary  situation  in 
Persia;  the  mystical  reaction  of  Sufiism  which 
ran  into  pantheism  and  this  modern  Babism; 
the  sceptical  reaction,  represented,  for  example, 
by  Omar  Khayam;  and  the  stern  revolt  against 
the  deification  of  Imams  and  holy  men,  which 
led  to  the  mechanical  views  of  the  divine  unity 
preached  by  the  Wahabis.  The  dervishes  grew 
profusely  out  of  the  Sufi  movement,  of  whom 
Jelal-ud-din,  the  founder  of  the  Maulavi  Dervishes 

is  the  best  spokesman : 

34 


Persia 


"  I  was  ere  a  name  had  been  named  upon  earth, 
Ere  one  trace  yet  existed  of  aught  that  had  birth  ; 
When  the  loci<s  of  the  Loved  One  streamed  forth  for  a  sign, 
And  Being  was  none,  save  the  Presence  Divine. 
Named  and  name  were  alike  emanations  from  Me, 
Ere  aught  that  was  I  existed,  or  'we.' 

*  *  *  *  *  *  * 

"  The  seventh  heaven  I  traversed — the  seventh  heaven  explored, 
But  in  neither  discerned  I  the  court  of  the  Lord  ! 
I  questioned  the  Pen  and  the  Tablet  of  fate 
But  they  whispered  not  where  he  pavilions  his  state. 
My  vision  I  strained  ;  but  my  God-scanning  eye 
No  trace  that  to  Godhead  belongs  could  descry  ; 
My  glance  I  bent  inward  ;  within  my  own  breast ; 
Lo  the  vainly  sought  elsewhere,  the  Godhead  confessed  ; 
In  the  whirl  of  its  transport  my  spirit  was  tossed, 
Till  each  atom  of  separate  being  I  lost." 

Omar  Khayam's  note  of  weary  scepticism  is 
worth  setting  over  against  this : 

"  One  moment  in  annihilation's  waste, 
One  moment  of  the  well  of  life  to  taste, 
The  stars  are  setting  and  the  caravan 
Starts  for  the  dawn  of  nothing — oh  make  haste  ! 

"Ah,  fill  the  cup  ; — what  boots  it  to  repeat 
How  time  is  slipping  underneath  our  feet ; 
Unborn  to-morrow,  and  dead  yesterday, 
Why  fret  about  them  if  to-day  be  sweet  ? 

******* 

"  That  inverted  bowl  we  call  the  sky. 
Where  under  crawling  coop'd  we  live  and  die, 
Lift  not  thy  hands  to  it  for  help— for  it 
Rolls  impotently  on  as  thou  or  L" 

As  for  the  Wahabis,  whose  movement  prevailed 
rather  in  Arabia  and  India,  their  doctrine  of  God 
was  ultra-Koranic,  and  their  reaction  was  just  an 
excessive  and  mechanical  affirmation  of  Moham- 
med's theistic  teachings,  which  there  was  danger 

35 


Missions  and  Politics 

of  confusing  in  the  multiplicity  of  holy  men.* 
No  acknowledged  Imam  has  aroused  Persia  for 
long  generations,  however,  and  the  early  views  of 
the  Deity  have  in  general  reasserted  themselves, 
so  that  whatever  can  be  said  of  the  Mohammedan 
theology  and  its  influence  elsewhere,  is  applicable 
to  Persia  independent  of  these  three  movements 
of  pantheism,  scepticism  and  deism.  Certain 
features  of  Shiahism,  however,  are  peculiar,  and 
have  produced  peculiar  results  which  must  be 
noted  by  themselves. 

At  the  present  time  then,  the  general  situation 
is  just  this :  Persia  is  the  stronghold  of  the  Shiah 
sect  whose  doctrines  possess  its  people  with  a 
strange  fanaticism.  Yet  the  Mohammedan  reli- 
gion is  a  distinct  ecclesiastical  organization,  having 
no  political  power,  and  hedged  in  and  curtailed  as 
an  influence  by  the  present  dynasty,  which  while 
holding  the  Shiah  faith  and  asserting  it  as  the 
State  religion,  still  is  and  can  but  be  in  the  place 
of  a  usurper  of  the  rights  of  All's  line.  Reli- 
giously, Persia  is  isolated  from  Turkey  which  is 
Sunnite,  and  politically  there  is  no  commerce;  for 
Islam  can  have  but  one  head,  and  Muzaffr-i-din  is 
as  far  from  recognizing  Abdul  Hamid  as  that 
head,  as  the  Sultan  is  from  bowing  to  the  Shah. 

»  Sell's  Faith  of  Islam,  Ed.,  1880,  chap.  iii. 
36 


Persia 

This  situation  suggests  its  own  problems.  I 
will  not  say  that  a  Moslem  unification  is  impossi- 
ble. If  seen  to  be  clearly  advantageous,  self- 
interest  would  probably  produce  it  as  Shamil 
welded  Sunnee  and  Shiah  in  the  Caucasus  a  gen- 
eration ago.  But  it  is  wholly  improbable,  and 
would  have  elements  of  disastrous  weakness  if 
ever  attempted.  The  destinies  of  Sunnee  and 
Shiah  seem  to  lie  apart,  while  Shiahism  is  rent 
and  seamed  with  schism.  Can,  then,  Persia 
stand  alone  and  alone  develop  ?  Are  the  internal 
conditions  of  Church  and  State  such  as  to  promise 
stability  ?  If  not,  what  are  the  relations  between 
Persia  and  Shiahism  on  one  side,  and  non-Moslem 
States  and  religion  on  the  other  which  will  de- 
termine the  future  of  the  country.  When  we 
have  answered  these  questions  we  shall  be  able 
perhaps  to  discern  the  general  outlines  of  the  di- 
vine history  which  is  now  making  in  Persia. 

I.  The  condition  of  religion  in  Persia.  Let  us 
judge  it  first  by  its  moral  fruits.  Sell  points  out 
that,  *'at  first  sight  it  would  seem  as  if  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Imamat  might  to  some  extent  recon- 
cile the  thoughtful  Shiah  to  the  Christian  doctrine 
of  the  Incarnation  and  Mediation  of  Jesus  Christ, 
to  His  office  as  the  perfect  revealer  of  God's  will, 
and  as  our  Guide  in  life;  but  it  is  not  so.    The 

37 


Missions  and  Politics 

mystic  lore  connected  with  Shiah  doctrine  has 
sapped  the  foundation  of  moral  life  and  vigor. 
A  system  of  religious  reservation,  too,  is  a  funda- 
mental part  of  the  system  in  its  mystical  develop- 
ments, whilst  all  Shiahs  may  lawfully  practise 
'takia'  or  religious  compromise  in  their  daily 
lives."  The  leader  of  the  Babis  gave  his  disciples 
a  full  dispensation  to  dissemble.  *Mt  thus  be- 
comes impossible  to  place  dependence  on  what  a 
Shiah  may  profess,  as  pious  frauds  are  legalized 
by  his  system  of  religion.  If  he  becomes  a 
mystic,  he  looks  upon  the  ceremonial  and  the 
moral  law  as  restrictions  imposed  by  an  Almighty 
Power.  The  omission  of  the  one  is  a  sin,  al- 
most, if  not  quite  as  bad  as  a  breach  of  the  other. 
The  advent  of  Mahdi  is  the  good  time  when  all 
such  restrictions  shall  be  removed,  when  the  ut- 
most freedom  shall  be  allowed.  Thus  the  moral 
sense,  in  many  cases,  becomes  deadened  to  an 
extent,  such  as  those  who  are  not  in  daily  contact 
with  these  people  can  hardly  credit.  The  prac- 
tice of  'takia,'  religious  compromise,  and  the  le- 
gality of  'mutah'  or  temporary  marriage  have 
done  much  to  demoralize  the  Shiah  community."^ 
Osborn's  words  in  Islam  under  the  Khalifs 


»  Sell's  Faith  of  Islam,  Edition,  1880,  pp.  83,  84. 
Rodwell's  Koran,  London  Ed.,  1876,  p.  451. 
38 


Persia 

(p.  139)  are  scarcely  too  severe.  "There  can  be 
no  stronger  testimony  of  the  corrupting  power, 
and  the  hard  and  hopeless  bondage  of  the  ortho- 
dox creed,  than  that  men  should  escape  from  it 
into  a  system  which  established  falsehood  as  the 
supreme  law  of  conduct,  and  regarded  the  reduc- 
tion of  men  to  the  level  of  swine  as  the  goal  of 
human  existence." 

This  is  stern  judgment,  but  who  that  has  seen 
the  position  of  woman  in  a  Mohammedan  land 
can  say  that  it  is  too  stern  ?  In  social  life  Mo- 
hammedanism never  conceived  of  a  home.  In 
Persian  there  are  no  distinct  words  for  wife  and 
home.  The  words  for  woman  and  house  serve 
instead.  The  Prophet's  example  and  teaching, 
the  latter  claiming  to  be  the  revelation  of  God, 
made  it  certain  that  Mohammedan  life  should 
forever  lack  all  that  for  which  in  our  Christian 
life  the  home  stands.  As  to  Mohammed's  ex- 
ample, Marcus  Dods'  estimate  of  the  man  is  but 
fair,  "After  Kadijah's  influence  was  with- 
drawn, his  relations  with  women  were  of  a 
thoroughly  discreditable  kind.^  His  morality  at 
this  point  was  not  that  of  a  high-minded  or  spir- 
itual man."  As  to  his  teaching,  the  Koran  de- 
clares,  "Of  other  women  who  seem   good  in 

*  Dods'  Mohammed,  Buddha,  Christ,  p.  24. 


Missions  and  Politics 

your  eyes,  marry  but  two  or  three  or  four" 
(Koran,  Sura  iv.  3).  "Who  control  their  desires, 
save  with  their  wives  or  the  slaves  whom  their 
right  hands  have  won, — in  that  case  verily  they 
shall  be  blameless;  .  .  .  these  shall  dwell, 
laden  with  honors  amid  gardens  "  (Koran,  Sura 
Ixx.  29,  30,  35).^  Thus  Mohammed  granted  his 
followers  in  all  times  what  in  practical  life 
amounts  to  unlimited  polygamy,  lust,  divinely 
legalized,  to  suit  the  taste  and  wealth  of  all. 
The  late  Shah,  a  Persian  army  officer  told  me 
in  Teheran,  left  in  his  harem  when  he  died, 
1,400  women,  104  of  whom  were  recognized  as 
legal  wives,  the  rest  as  concubines  and  attendants. 
The  present  Shah  said  some  years  ago,  that  his 
father  had  fifty-six  wives.  Few  Persians,  of 
course,  are  able  to  support  such  establishments. 
Probably  one-half  are  monogamists  of  necessity 
through  poverty.  But  for  the  satisfaction  of 
these,  and  with  the  effect  of  rendering  true  home 
life  impossible  for  them,  the  Koran  provides  for 
divorce  at  will.  *'Ye  may  divorce  your  wives 
twice.  Then  if  the  husband  divorce  her  a  third 
time  it  is  not  lawful  for  him  to  take  her  again 
until  she  shall  have  married  another  husband; 
and  if  he  also  divorce  her,  then  shall  no  blame 

*  Rod  well's  Koran.,  London  Ed.,  1876,  p.  60. 

40 


Persia 

attach  to  them  if  they  return  to  each  other" 
(Koran,  Sura  ii.  229,  230).  In  accordance  with 
these  provisions  men  may  take  and  discharge 
wives  when  they  will.  The  words  of  the  Ko- 
ran regarding  the  return  of  the  dower,  or  hire, 
as  the  Koran  coarsely  calls  it,  constitute  prac- 
tically no  defence  for  the  wife.  She  has  no 
remedy,  no  resource.  She  must  do  what  she 
can  with  her  life.  Under  such  practices  and 
ideals  it  is  not  strange  that  one  sees  in  Persia, 
not  the  attractive  women,  and  the  stalwart  men 
of  whom  the  books  speak,  but  wrecked  and 
weakly  men  and  women,  aged  and  shrivelled  be- 
fore their  time.  It  is  significant  that  the  pro- 
visions regarding  divorce  contained  in  the  Ko- 
ran are  in  a  Sura  named  *'The  Cow."  That  is 
woman's  grade.  "An  inferior,  dependent  crea- 
ture," says  Sir  Wm.  Muir,  "destined  only  for 
the  service  of  her  master.  .  ,  .  Who  pos- 
sessed," adds  Muir,  "more  freedom  and  exer- 
cised a  healthier  and  more  legitimate  influence 
under  the  pagan  institutions  of  Arabia  before  the 
time  of  Mohammed,  than  under  the  influence  of 
Islam." 

Nowhere  has  Islam  done  its  deadly  work  in 
this  regard  more  fearfully  than  in  Persia.     In  a 
report  on  Persia  in  1873,  Polak,  who  was  a  phy- 
41 


Missions  and  Politics 

sician,  named  as  the  first  main  cause  of  the  de- 
cline of  the  population,  "the  unfavorable  posi- 
tion of  women,  including  the  facility  of  divorce, 
early  marriage  and  premature  age."  I  under- 
stood after  seeing  Persia,  the  reason  for  one 
Persian  woman's  words  to  Mrs.  Hawkes  of 
Hamadan  :  '*Your  Prophet  did  well  for  your 
women.  Ours  did  not.  I  shall  have  words  with 
our  Prophet  when  I  see  him  in  the  next  world," 
and  how  another  could  cry  out  of  her  wretched- 
ness, ''When  the  gates  of  hell  are  opened,  the 
Mussulman  men  will  go  in  first." ^ 

It  has  been  claimed  for  Islam  that  its  provi- 
sions regarding  marriage  and  divorce  have  abol- 
ished the  vice  of  prostitution,  and  made  Moslem 
lands  in  this  respect  cleaner  than  Christian  lands. 
It  might  be  replied  that  the  authorized  Moslem 
practices  regarding  women  render  this  a  super- 
fluous and  unnecessary  vice;  but  it  may  be 
worth  while  to  accept  the  challenge  and  meas- 
ure Persian  Mohammedanism  by  it.  Prostitution 
has  not  been  abolished.  It  flourishes  under  ec- 
clesiastical sanction  in  many  cities,  but  notably  in 
Meshed.  Meshed  is  the  holiest  city  of  Persia, 
the  burial  place  of  the  preeminently  holy  Imam 
Reza,  the  son.  of  Imam  Musa,  and  the  eighth  of 

*■  Wilson's  Persian  Life  and  Customs,  N.  Y.  Ed.,  1895,  p.  226. 
42 


Persia 

the  twelve  Imams.  To  this  shrine  100,000  pil- 
grims annually  toil  from  all  parts  of  Persia.  **In 
recognition  of  the  long  journeys  which  they  have 
made,"  says  Curzon,^  ''of  the  hardships  which 
they  have  sustained,  and  of  the  distance  by 
which  they  are  severed  from  family  and  home, 
they  are  permitted,  with  the  connivance  of  the 
ecclesiastical  law  and  its  officers,  to  contract 
temporary  marriages  during  their  sojourn  in  the 
city.  There  is  a  large  permanent  population  of 
wives  (in  connection  with  the  shrine)  for  this 
purpose.  ...  In  other  words,  a  gigantic 
system  of  prostitution  under  the  sanction  of  the 
Church  prevails  in  Meshed."  The  Mollahs  them- 
selves draw  up  the  temporary  contracts,  "There 
is  probably  not  a  more  immoral  city  in  Asia." 
Shiah  Mohammedanism  has  not  only  not  abol- 
ished this  awful  evil,  it  lends  to  it  its  Mollahs  and 
its  mosques.  Of  yet  viler  vices  which  it  has  fos- 
tered, 1  will  not  venture  to  speak;  or  of  the  evi- 
dence that  intemperance,  opium  eating,  false- 
hood, cruelty  to  children,  are  other  fruits  of 
Islam  in  Persia,  or,  if  they  are  not  its  fruits,  have 
at  least  grown  up  substantially  unchecked  by  it, 
and  uncondemned  by  the  Mollahs.  Regarding 
these,    Curzon    claims    that    Conolly    was   well 

•  Curzon's  Persia,  London  Ed.,  1892,  Vol.  I.,  p.  165. 
43 


Missions  and  Politics 

within  the  mark  when  he  wrote  of  the  priests 
of  one  of  Shiahism's  most  holy  shrines,  ''The 
greater  number  of  these  are  rogues,  who  only 
take  thought  of  how  to  make  the  most  of  the 
pilgrims  who  visit  the  shrine.  From  the  high 
priest  to  the  seller  of  bread,  all  have  the  same 
end;  and  not  content  with  the  strangers'  money, 
those  in  office  about  the  saint  appropriate  to 
themselves  the  very  dues  for  keeping  the  temple 
in  order." 

2.  In  addition  to  utter  failure  in  moral  and 
social  life,  Islam  has  wrought  out  its  own  con- 
demnation in  politics.  This  condemnation  has 
been  due,  and  in  the  present  history  of  Persia  can 
still  be  traced  to  the  Moslem  idea  of  God,  and  the 
Moslem  doctrine  of  the  Koran.  There  is  much 
that  is  stimulating  and  true  in  the  conception  of 
God  presented  by  Mohammed.  *'God!"  cried 
he,  ''There  is  no  God  but  He— the  living,  the 
self-subsisting;  neither  slumber  seizes  Him,  nor 
sleep;  all  that  is  in  the  heavens  and  in  the  earth 
is  His.  Who  is  he  that  can  intercede  with  Him 
but  by  His  own  permission  ?  He  knoweth  what 
is  present  with  His  creatures,  and  what  is  yet  be- 
fore them ;  yet  naught  of  His  knowledge  do  they 
comprehend,  save  what  He  wiliest.     His  throne 

reacheth  over  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  and  the 
44 


Persia 

upholding  of  both  burdeneth  Him  not.  And  He 
is  the  High,  the  Great."  There  is  a  tonic  in  such 
teaching  beside  which  the  miasmic  pantheism  of 
India  is  as  mire.  And  to  this  God,  the  High,  the 
Great,  Mohammed  preached  sole  submission. 
This  was  Islam.  "Islam  means"  as  Thomas 
Carlyle  says  in  Heroes  and  Hero  Worship,  (Chap, 
ii.)  "that  we  must  submit  to  God,  that  our  whole 
strength  lies  in  resigned  submission  to  Him,  what- 
soever He  do  to  us.  .  .  .  It  has  ever  been 
held,"  Carlyle  adds,  "the  highest  wisdom  for  a 
man,  not  merely  to  submit  to  necessity — neces- 
sity will  make  him  submit — but  to  know  and  be- 
lieve well  that  the  stern  thing  which  necessity 
had  ordered  was  the  wisest,  the  best,  the  thing 
wanted  there ;  to  cease  his  frantic  pretension  of 
scanning  this  great  God's  world  in  his  small 
fraction  of  a  brain ;  to  know  that  it  had  verily, 
though  deep  beyond  his  soundings,  a  just  law; 
that  the  sum  of  it  was  good ;  that  his  part  was 
to  conform  to  the  law  of  the  whole  and  in  de- 
vout silence  follow  that;  not  questioning  it, 
obeying  it  as  unquestionable.  This  is  the  soul  of 
Islam;  it  is  properly  the  soul  of  Christianity," — 
submission.  And  even  so  good  a  Christian  as 
Bishop  Butler  says,  'Submission  is  the  whole  of 
religion."    I  trust  not  of  ours,  though  it  be  of 

45 


Missions  and  Politics 

Mohammed's  and  Mohammed's  followers'.  This 
is  its  weakness  as  well  as  its  strength.  It  fills 
men  with  the  fierce  fanaticism  of  God's  servants. 
It  gives  them  none  of  the  love  and  gentleness  of 
God's  sons.  "I  have  called  you  slaves,"  says 
Mohammed.  "I  have  called  you  friends,"  said 
Christ. 

Islam  has  not  provided  for  fellowship  with 
God.  He  spoke  by  Mohammed.  The  Koran  is 
the  last  sound  of  His  voice  human  ears  have 
heard.  Of  a  living  God  speaking  to  the  soul  and 
dwelling  there  as  the  light  of  our  light  and  the 
life  of  our  life,  Islam  does  not  dream.  God  the 
Eternal  One,  begetting  not,  not  begotten,  sits  on 
His  throne  and  watches  His  mighty  machinery  roll 
out  the  unchangeable,  predestined  result.  He 
speaks  not,  neither  does  He  hear.  The  deaf  and 
dumb  God  drives  the  engines  of  fate.  "\n- 
shallah,"  *' Kismet,"  are  the  words  of  Islam,  and 
*'He  loves,"  *'He  cares,"  ''He  hears,"  are  alien 
to  its  creed. 

Such  a  deism  is  the  death  of  progress.  Its 
God  "sterile  in  His  inaccessible  height,  neither 
loving  nor  enjoying  aught  save  His  own  and  self- 
measured  decree,  without  son,  companion  or 
councillor,  is  no  less  barren  for  Himself  than  for 

His  creatures,  and  His  own  barrenness  and  lone 
46 


Persia 

egoism  in  Himself  is  the  cause  and  rule  of  His 
indifferent  and  unregarding  despotism  around." 
In  its  essence,  therefore,  as  Palgrave  declares, 
Islam  must  be  stationary.  It  **  was  formed  thus 
to  remain.  Sterile  like  its  God,  lifeless  like  its 
first  Principle,  and  supreme  Original  in  all  that 
constitutes  true  life — (for  life  is  love,  participation 
and  progress,  and  of  these  the  Koranic  Deity  has 
none) — it  justly  repudiates  all  change,  all  advance, 
all  development."^ 

And  not  only  is  there  no  germ  or  justification 
of  life  and  progress  in  the  Mohammedan  idea  of 
God,  but  the  Prophet  wholly  blocked  the  possi- 
bility of  these  by  stereotyping  forever  the  forms 
and  spirit  of  his  religion  in  the  Koran.  To  tem- 
porary expedients  and  customs  the  Koran  gave 
permanent  form  and  sanction.  It  stultifies  itself 
and  its  religion  by  erecting  thus  into  permanent 
institutions  the  semi-savage  conceptions  and  ad- 
justments of  the  seventh  century  in  Arabia.  It 
cannot  alter.     The  mould  has  set: 

"  So  while  the  world  rolls  on  from  change  to  change, 
And  realms  of  thought  expand. 
The  letter  stands  without  expanse  or  range 
Stiff  as  a  dead  man's  hand." 

Nowhere  have  these  petrifying,  stagnating  in- 
fluences of  Islam  borne  more  evident  fruit  than  in 

*  Palgrave 's  Arabia,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  369,  372. 

47 


Missions  and  Politics 

Persia.  For  twelve  centuries  the  land  has  been 
Moslem.  During  those  centuries  some  notable 
characters  have  arisen;  in  science,  Avicenna,  in 
medicine,  Nasr-i-din,  in  astronomy;  in  poetry, 
Firdousi,  Saadi,  Hafiz;  in  war  and  government, 
Shah  Abbas  the  Great.  But  Islam  is  to  be  cred- 
ited with  none  of  these.  It  was  the  outburst  of 
the  strong  old  Persian  character.  We  may  say  of 
it  what  Renan  said  of  the  flourishing  of  science  and 
philosophy  on  Mussulman  soil  during  the  first  half 
of  the  Middle  Ages,  * '  It  was  not  by  reason  of  Islam. 
It  was  in  spite  of  Islam."  It  has  happened  in  Per- 
sia as  Fairbairn  declares  has  happened  elsewhere, 
"The  Koran  has  frozen  Mohammedan  thought. 
To  obey  it  has  been  to  abandon  progress." 

Like  a  wreck,  a  ruin,  a  memory  of  far- 
distant  greatness,  the  Persian  Nation  lies  in  evi- 
dence of  the  paralysis  of  Islam.  There  are  no 
schools,  save  here  and  there  chattering  groups 
around  a  village  priest,  or  worse  than  mediaeval 
groups  around  a  mesjid  and  a  mujtahid.  The 
few  schools  of  the  government  in  Tabriz,  and 
Teheran  are  chiefly  opportunities  for  officials  to 
eat  up  public  revenues.  Charitable  institutions 
are  practically  unknown.  Prisons  are  mere  places 
of  torture  until  the  demanded  money  fine  is  paid. 

Houses  of  permanent  detention  or  reformation 
48 


Persia 

for  evil  doers  do  not  exist.  Death  or  payment  or 
torture  are  the  ends  of  the  law.  The  courts  half 
civil,  half  ecclesiastical,  are  irregular,  with  no 
written  codes,  no  jury  system,  no  pleading,  no 
testimony,  save  the  eloquence  and  evidence  of 
bribes.  The  sects  of  Shiahism  riot  when  they 
please  in  internecine  strife,  plunder  and  murder. 
The  attempts  to  imitate  some  of  the  external 
ways  of  civilization  have  ended  in  bathos.  The 
postal  system  is  a  despair,  the  couriers  lounging 
idly  along  the  road,  taking  often  a  week  to  go 
200  miles,  while  postmasters  take  letters  from 
the  mail  when  they  please  and  are  the  tools  of 
government.  The  telegraph  system  is  yet  more 
of  a  farce.  Whole  sentences  were  omitted  from 
our  messages.  The  posts  lie  on  the  ground  with 
the  wires  under  the  feet  of  the  caravans.  Tele- 
grams are  often  as  long  on  the  road  as  letters,  and 
the  senders  frequently  arrive  before  their  mes- 
sages. The  roads  are  mere  trails.  One  or  two 
were  built  once  but  they  are  falling  into  ruin.  The 
post  houses  and  caravansaries  are  tumbling  down. 
Bridges  are  no  concern  of  the  government,  and 
are  cared  for  only  by  those  who  absolutely  need 
them  or  would  make  heavenly  merit.  The  army, 
with  wages  of  two  cents  a  day  and  pay  a  year  in 
arrears,  tattered  and  sickly,  is  too  sad  a  sight  to 

49 


Missions  and  Politics 

be  ludicrous.  Villages  are  owned  by  proprietors 
usually  living  in  some  distant  city,  and  bleeding 
them  through  ravenous  collectors.  All  enterprise 
is  throttled  by  taxation.  The  land  lies  smitten 
and  in  despair.  Offices  are  bought  and  sold,  and 
each  purchaser  squeezes  at  once  every  dollar  pos- 
sible out  of  those  placed  in  his  power,  to  reim- 
burse himself  for  his  bribes,  and  to  prepare  for 
his  removal,  which  may  come  at  any  hour.  The 
village  homes  are  as  poor  as  well  can  be,  and  the 
villager  fears  prosperity  as  the  sure  promise  that 
fresh  tax  levies  will  pinch  him  more  than  before.* 
Saddest  of  all  is  the  decadence  of  religious  per- 
ception, the  want  of  moral  stamina,  the  preva- 
lence of  deceit,  falsehood,  rottenness  of  life,  of 
all  of  which  there  is  no  stronger  evidence  than 
the  throngs  of  dervishes,  the  holy  men  of  Islam, 
who  wander  up  and  down  the  land,  loathsome 
beyond  words. 

The  decadence  of  Persia  began  long  ago,  but 
Islam  has  only  accelerated  its  pace,  having  done 
nothing  to  cleanse  or  to  save.  A  son  of  Path  Ali 
Shah,  the  great-grandfather  of  the  present  Shah, 
who  though  an  old  and  bent  man,  was  about  to  start 
on  a  pilgrimage  to  Mecca,  told  me  that  the  land 
had  gone  down,  down,  down,  each  year.    I  asked 

*  Curzon  s  Persia,  Vol.  I.,  chaps,  xiv.,  xv. 
50 


Persia 

two  of  the  most  judicious  natives  in  Oroomiah, 
whether  the  condition  was  hopeless.  "Yes," 
they  said,  "the  country  is  going  steadily  from 
worse  to  worse.  Nothing  can  save  Persia  till 
Islam  is  broken."  Another  remedy  is  the  long- 
ing of  thousands  of  Persians.  A  young  noble- 
man on  the  Kum  road,  expressed  it  to  us  when 
he  said,  "There  must  be  a  protectorate  or  a  di- 
vision soon.  There  is  no  hope  save  in  Russia  or 
England." 

"  In  vain  did  Mohammed,"  said  Professor  Smyth 
in  his  Oxford  Lectures  on  Modern  History,  "de- 
stroy the  idols  of  his  countrymen  and  sublimate 
their  faith  to  the  worship  of  the  one  true  God," 
— and  all  his  words  apply  with  equal  truth  to 
Persia — "in  vain  did  he  inculcate  compassion  to 
the  distressed,  alms  to  the  needy,  protection  and 
tenderness  to  the  widow  and  the  orphan.  He 
neither  abolished  nor  discountenanced  polygamy, 
and  the  professors  of  his  faith  have  been  thus 
left  the  domestic  tyrants  of  one-half  of  their  own 
race.  He  taught  predestination,  and  they  have 
thus  become  by  their  crude  application  of  his 
doctrine,  the  victims  of  every  natural  disease  and 
calamity.  He  practised  intolerance,  and  they  are 
thus  made  the  enemies  of  the  civilized  world. 
He  permitted  the  union  of  the  royal  and  sacerdo- 

51 


Missions  and  Politics 

tal  offices,  and  he  made  the  book  of  his  religion 
and  his  legislation  the  same.  All  alteration  there- 
fore, among  the  Mohammedans  must  have  been 
thought  impiety.  Last  in  the  scale  of  thinking 
beings,  they  have  exhibited  families  without  so- 
ciety, subjects  without  freedom,  governments 
.without  security  and  nations  without  improve- 
ynent." 

'j  The  living  God  to  whom  all  lies  are  abhorrent 
has  wrought  out  the  demonstration  of  Moham- 
medanism's failure  and  curse  beyond  a  chance  of 
misunderstanding.  But  what  is  to  become  of 
the  wreck.?  There  are  two  forces  shaping  the 
future  even  now.  One  is  political.  Persia  is 
one  of  that  group  of  intermediate  states  between 
the  Russian  Power  and  the  British  Empire  in 
India,  which  are  being  crushed  as  the  pack  ice  is 
crushed  between  approaching  icebergs.  The 
Russian  eagles  hang  about  Ararat  and  watch 
from  the  North  bank  of  the  Aras  river  over  the 
province  of  Azerbijan,  in  the  Northwest.  The 
Caspian  Sea  is  wholly  in  Russia's  control  on  the 
North,  and  Russia's  railroad  and  encampments 
lie  along  the  Northeast,  beyond  the  province  of 
Khorasan.  On  the  other  hand,  British  boats  con- 
trol the  Tigris,  and  therefore  the  Southwest  of 
Persia.    Bushire    is  within    call    of   India,   and 

52 


Persia 

British  war  ships  are  ever  lying  there.  The  gulf 
coast  of  Persia  is  regarded  in  India  as  semi-Brit- 
ish and  Muscat,  which  is  semi-British  also,  is 
within  hail  across  the  Persian  Gulf,  while  around 
the  Southeastern  corner  of  Persia  the  British  sen- 
tinels wait.  **It  should  not  be  forgotten,"  says 
the  Times  of  India,  "that  the  real  frontier  of  the 
Indian  Empire  is  not  the  scene  of  the  recent  con- 
flicts with  the  Afridi  and  Waziri  tribes,  but  that 
it  stretches  virtually  from  the  mouth  of  the 
Shat-el-Arab,  at  the  head  of  the  Persian  Gulf,  along 
the  Southern  borders  of  Afghanistan  and  Thibet 
to  Burmah  and  Yunnan."  And  as  on  the  East, 
Russia  creeps  down  from  Bokhara,  Great  Britain 
creeps  up  from  Peshawur.  If  within  the  land 
the  British  Minister  was  the  Shah  until  the  son 
could  be  brought  to  sit  on  the  throne  which  his 
father's  assassination  had  made  vacant,  the  Rus- 
sian Minister  has  played  Shah  since  when  it 
suited  him.  Whose  will  Persia  be  }  Great  Brit- 
ain does  not  want  it.  The  trade  would  not  pay 
for  the  cost  and  trouble  of  government.  That 
is  the  final  test.  Russia  does  not  want  Persia 
yet.  There  is  too  much  else  in  hand.  That 
Russia  is  unprepared  was  clearly  shown  by  her. 
failure  to  support  the  Greek  priests  who  in  1897 

stampeded  the  Nestorians  with  hope  of  Russia's 
53 


Missions  and  Politics 

protection,  and  then  for  a  time,  at  least,  abandoned 
them  to  worse  oppression  when  the  Russian  civil 
authorities  declined  to  fulfill  the  promises  of  their 
ecclesiastics.  Great  Britain  and  Russia  are  not 
yet  where  they  could  jointly  occupy  or  hold  pro- 
tectorate over  a  land.  But  if  that  day  should  come, 
the  Eastern  Question  would  be  solved.  The  whole 
heart  of  that  question  is  the  jealousy  of  these  two 
Powers.  Then  the  Turk  would  leave  Europe,  and 
Persia  would  be  cleansed  and  set  upon  her  feet. 
Meanwhile  politically  the  game  will  be  a  balance 
between  these  two  in  Persia  with  the  odds  ever  in 
Russia's  favor,  and  a  fair  pretext  for  interference 
/  always  at  hand  in  the  relations  of  the  Nestorians 
to  the  Greek  Church. 

The  other  force  that  is  at  work  in  Persia  is 
Missions.  It  is  an  intruder.  The  presence  of 
Missions  in  a  Moslem  land  is  inconsistent  with 
the  character  of  Islam,  which  requires  that  all 
non-Moslems  shall  accept  the  Koran,  pay  trib- 
ute, or  be  put  to  the  sword,  and  whose  precise 
instructions,  never  revoked,  are  ''Fight  thou 
against  them  (Jews  and  Christians)  until  they 
pay  tribute  by  right  of  subjection,  and  they  be  re- 
duced low,"  (Koran,  Sura  ix.  30).  To  send  mis- 
sionaries to  Islam  if  it  be  true  to  itself,  therefore, 
is  to  thrust  men  into  the  lion's  den.     It  is  for  this 

64 


Persia 

reason  that  Islam  has  been  so  shunned  as  a  Mis- 
sion field.  It  had  dealt  with  Christianity  and 
claimed  to  be  its  successor  and  superior,  and 
whoever  would  not  acknowledge  this  it  pro- 
posed to  humiliate,  or  to  put  to  death.  Accord- 
ingly, among  the  great  heroes  of  missionary 
history  men  rank  Francis  of  Assisi  and  Ray- 
mond Lull,^  the  former  because  in  1219,  though 
there  was  a  price  on  every  Christian's  head,  he 
marched  in  his  mendicant's  grey  robe  and  cord 
of  self-denial,  chanting  the  twenty-third  Psalm, 
into  the  very  midst  of  the  Saracen  hosts,  which 
were  then  besieged  in  Damietta  by  an  army  of 
crusading  Franks ;  and  the  latter,  because  a  cen- 
tury later,  after  missionary  labors  never  sur- 
passed, he  was  stoned  to  death  by  Moslems,  to 
whose  evangelization  he  had  devoted  his  life, 
true  in  death  as  in  all  living  service  to  the  motto 
from  his  own  great  book,  "He  who  loves  not, 
lives  not;  and  he  who  lives  by  the  Life  cannot 
die."  These  were  great  heroisms  and  rare;  in 
missionaries  to  the  Mohammedans  our  own  cen- 
tury has  been  richer  far. 

Henry  Martyn  was  the  first  of  this  band  in 
Persia.  Coming  from  India,  he  passed  through 
on  his  way  to  Tocat,  where  in  compliance  with 

*  Smith's  Short  History  of  Christian  Missions,  pp.  101-108. 

55 


Missions  and  Politics 

his  own  earlier  prayer,  he  burned  out  for  God. 
In  1811  he  wished  to  present  his  translation  of 
the  New  Testament  and  Psalms  to  the  king. 
The  greeting  he  received  in  this  attempt  is  worth 
recalling:  ''June  12th,"  he  wrote,  ''I  attended 
the  vizier's  levee  when  there  was  a  most  intem- 
perate and  clamorous  controversy  kept  up  for  an 
hour  or  two,  eight  or  ten  on  one  side  and  1  on 
the  other.  .  .  .  The  vizier,  who  set  us  going 
at  first,  joined  in  it  latterly,  and  said,  *  You  had 
better  say  God  is  God  and  Mohammed  is  the 
prophet  of  God.'  I  said,  'God  is  God,'  but 
added  instead  of  '  Mohammed  is  the  prophet  of 
God,'  'and  Jesus  is  the  Son  of  God.'  They  had 
no  sooner  heard  this,  which  I  had  avoided  bring- 
ing forward  until  then,  than  they  all  exclaimed 
in  contempt  and  anger,  '  He  is  neither  born  nor 
begets,'  and  rose  as  if  they  would  have  torn  me 
in  pieces.  One  of  them  said,  'What  will  you 
say  when  your  tongue  is  burned  out  for  this 
blasphemy  ? '  One  of  them  felt  for  me  a  little 
and  tried  to  soften  the  severity  of  this  speech. 
My  book,  which  I  had  brought,  expecting  to 
present  it  to  the  king,  lay  before  Mirza  Shufi. 
As  they  all  rose  up  after  him  to  go,  some  to  the 
king  and  some  away,  I  was  afraid  they  would 
trample  upon  the  book,  so  I  went  among  them  to 

56 


Persia 

take  it  up  and  wrapped  it  in  a  towel  before 
them,  while  they  looked  at  it  and  me  with  su- 
preme contempt.  Thus  I  walked  away  alone  to 
pass  the  rest  of  the  day  in  heat  and  dirt.  What 
have  I  done,  thought  I,  to  merit  all  this  scorn  ? 
Nothing,  thought  I,  but  bearing  testimony  to 
Jesus.  I  thought  over  these  things  in  prayer, 
and  found  that  peace  which  Christ  hath  prom- 
ised to  His  disciples."^ 

The  spirit  which  Henry  Martyn  encountered 
eighty-one  years  ago  is  the  spirit  of  Persian 
Moslems  still.  The  attempt  to  carry  on  an  open 
and  continued  propaganda  among  them  would 
lead  to  the  expulsion  of  the  missionaries  from 
the  country,  if  indeed  it  did  not  lead  to  riot, 
incendiarism  and  murder.  Principal  Grant  of 
Queen's  University,  Canada,  innocently  suggests 
in  his  little  book  on  The  Religions  of  the  World 
(p.  40),  that  '*we  can  approach  them  (the  Mos- 
lems) in  the  spirit  of  brotherhood,  as  men  hav- 
ing a  common  heritage.  We  can  show  to  all 
(of  them)  who  are  reasonable  and  who  appre- 
ciate the  methods  and  principles  of  modern  criti- 
cism, that  there  is  the  fullest  proof  for  the  ac- 
curacy of  our  Scriptures — better  proof,  indeed, 
than  for  any  other  ancient  documents."    We  can 

•  Smith's  Henry  Martyn,  pp.  466,  467. 

57 


Missions  and  Politics 

indeed,  and  when  Persia  opens  to  the  study  of 
comparative  religion  and  of  modern  literary  criti- 
cism it  will  be  fatal  to  Mohammedanism,  but  as 
yet  the  number  of  Persians  "who  are  reasonable 
and  who  appreciate  the  principles  and  methods 
of  modern  criticism  "  is  so  small  as  to  be  undis- 
coverable,  while  the  host  who  cry  out  against 
the  infidels,  and  who  respond  to  the  fanatical 
incitements  of  the  ecclesiastics  is  very  great,  so 
great  as  to  have  made  many  missionaries  trem- 
ble, and  to  have  won  for  not  a  few  native  Chris- 
tians the  crown  of  martyrdom. 

How  is  it  then,  it  may  be  asked,  that  since 
1835  the  missionaries  have  been  allowed  to  live 
and  work  so  freely  in  the  country  ?  The  answer 
is  twofold. 

I  They  have  been  allowed  to  stay  and  work 
because  their  base  of  work  was  among  non- 
Moslem  people.  There  were  in  Persia  before  the 
Kurdish  outrages,  about  20,000  Jews,  45,000  Ar- 
menians and  25,000  Nestorians.  Since  the  mas- 
sacres in  Turkey,  the  numbers  of  Armenians  and 
Nestorians  have  been  greatly  increased  by  the 
flocks  of  refugees  who  have  come  over  into  Per- 
sia. These  non-Moslem  communities,  which  are 
wholly  subject  and  suffer  many  grievous  disabili- 
ties, especially  the  Jews,  have  a  recognized  stand- 

58 


Persia 

ing,  and  have  been  secured  in  the  practice  of  their 
own  religions.  Missionary  work  among  them 
has  been  both  allowed  and  encouraged  by  the 
government,  and  settling  among  them  and  secure 
in  his  relationship  to  them,  the  missionary  has 
been  free  to  do  unlimited  work  among  the  Mos- 
lems if  he  does  it  prudently  and  tactfully,  and 
with  as  much  conciliation  as  the  conflict  of  his 
truth  with  Moslem  error  will  allow. 

Perhaps  it  was  with  some  such  purpose  that 
the  Providence  of  God  settled  these  small  bodies 
in  Persia.  The  Christianity  of  Gregorian  and 
Nestorian  was  a  reproach.  It  fortified  rather  than 
weakened  Moslem  conviction  as  to  the  superiority 
of  Islam.  The  Mussulman  has  treated  them  with 
contempt  and  looked  down  on  their  ancient 
Churches  with  disdain ;  but  when  we  think  of  the 
old  Code  of  Omar  and  its  exactions  that  the 
graves  of  Christians  should  be  level  with  the 
ground,  the  mark  of  the  devil  should  be  on  the 
lintel  of  their  doors,  that  all  freedom  and  aspira- 
tion should  be  proscribed  to  them  and  their  wor- 
ship be  degraded,  and  their  homes,  their  wives 
and  their  honor  humbled;  and  when  we  remem- 
ber that  they  have  under  the  abuse  of  centuries 
maintained  at  least  their  existence  and  the 
Christian    name;    and   realize  that  without  the 


Missions  and  Politics 

opportunity  they  provide  we  should  probably  be 
without  access  to  Islam  in  Persia,  we  temper  our 
judgment,  though  we  recognize  their  degradation 
and  need.^ 

As  to  the  future  of  the  non-Moslem  peoples 
under  the  Shah,  hope  grows  dim.  From  1870  to 
1890  their  condition  seemed  to  improve  steadily, 
as  the  Shah  increased  his  power  and  authority 
over  the  ecclesiastics  and  strengthened  the  central 
government.  Since  1890,  however,  the  ecclesi- 
astics have  been  regaining  their  lost  ground,  and 
the  central  Government  has  been  disintegrating, 
and  disorder  and  fear  now  prevail.  And  for 
these  and  their  hard  lot  in  general,  the  Armenians 
and  Nestorians,  not  unnaturally  hold  responsible 
the  so-called  Christian  Nations,  and  consequently 
their  representatives,  the  missionaries.  The  edu- 
cation of  these  people  under  systems  which  com- 
bine State  and  Church  prevents  their  discriminat- 
ing in  our  case  between  the  pagan  acts  of  our 
Governments  and  the  Christian  professions  of  our 
religion.  And  this  is  quite  intelligible  to  us  also, 
.  when  we  remember  the  way  Western  Nations 
have  laid  themselves  open  in  this  matter.  To 
gain  political  power  they  used  the  pretexts  of  de- 
sire to  defend  fellow  Christians,  and  when  such 

»  Muir's  Caliphate,  London  Ed.,  1892,  p.  147. 

60 


Persia 

defence  imperilled  political  power  disavowed  all 
such  responsibility.  That  this  was  true  especially 
in  Turkey,  does  not  prevent  the  Persian  Christians 
from  feeling  the  mockery  and  deception  of  it. 

Among    these    non-Moslem     peoples,     noble 
fruits  of  missionary  effort  have  been  gathered; 
but  looking  far  forward,  their  chief  significance  "1 
is  found  in  their  relation  and  the  relation  of  the 
work  among  them,  to  the  coming  conflict  with  j 
Islam. 

2  The  other  reason  for  the  non-molestation 
of  the  Missions  is  found  in  the  high  character 
and  ability  of  the  missionaries,  and  the  influence 
they  have  gained  in  the  country.  General  Wag- 
ner, an  Austrian  officer,  the  drill  master  of  the 
Persian  army,  who  has  been  for  nearly  twenty 
years  in  Persia,  and  who  came  to  Teheran  with 
the  present  Shah,  said  to  me,  "Tell  the  Church 
in  America  that  I  have  seen  the  missionaries,  and 
have  studied  their  work  in  Oroomiah,  Salmas, 
Tabriz  and  Teheran.  I  know  about  it.  It  is  not 
a  human  work.  It  is  an  angel  work.  They  are 
all  angels."  The  old  general's  confidence  in  the 
missionaries  was  greater  than  his  knowledge  of 
English.  And  when  a  missionary  present  tried  to 
turn  the  edge  of  his  remark,  and  happened  to  use 

the  word  heaven,  **  Yes,"  said  General  Wagner, 
61 


Missions  and  Politics 

catching  the  new  word,  ' 'it  is  a  heaven  work — a 
heaven  work."  The  acting  Dutch  minister  who 
was  present,  added,  "All  the  rest  of  us  are  here 
for  money.  The  missionaries  are  here  to  do 
good.  It  is  the  noblest,  the  only  good  work  in 
Persia." 

The  day  before  we  left  Teheran,  Sir  Mortimer 
Durand,  the  British  Minister,  and  one  of  the 
ablest  British  diplomatists  in  Asia,  came  up  at 
the  close  of  a  service  held  for  Europeans,  and 
said  that  he  had  not  had  opportunity  before  to 
say  as  strongly  as  he  wished,  and  perhaps  could 
not  say  strongly  enough,  how  much  the  Euro- 
peans in  Persia,  and  he  personally,  were  in- 
debted to  the  missionaries  and  to  the  American 
Church  for  sending  them;  how  much  good 
they  did,  how  great  their  influence  was  in  the 
land. 

This  view  of  the  leading  foreigners  could  be 
supported  by  the  words  of  governors  and  princes 
who  agreed  in  the  testimony  of  Prince  Azad-i- 
dowleh,  governor  of  Hamadan,  a  venerable  man, 
who,  during  our  last  call  upon  him,  laid  his  hand 
with  real  confidence  upon  the  arm  of  one  of  the 
missionaries,  and  said,  "These  gentlemen  and  I 
are  warm  friends,  brothers."  Even  among  the 
Shiah  mollahs  the  missionaries  have  friends  who 

63 


Persia 

respect  them,  and  might  protect  them.  And  in 
general,  Shiah  Mohammedans  in  Persia  seem 
more  open  than  the  Sunnees  of  Turkey,  while  yet 
they  are  usually  esteemed  more  fanatical  and 
bigoted,  and  while  those  doubtless  are  right  who 
see  only  evil  and  the  promise  of  evil  in  the  eccle- 
siastics. That  there  should  be  any  friendliness 
and  accessibility  is  quite  illogical,  to  be  sure, 
and  it  shows  that  the  hold  of  Islam  has  weak- 
ened. 

As  indeed  it  has.  It  is  true  that  the  number  of 
open  converts  from  Mohammedanism  is  small, 
that  those  who  openly  confess  Christ  are  perse- 
cuted and  sometimes  put  to  death.  Mirza  Ibra- 
him was  thus  killed  only  five  years  ago.  But  the 
shackles  of  their  faith  hang  lightly  on  thousands 
of  Mussulmans.  I  have  seen  half  a  dozen  mollahs 
come  to  a  Christian  service,  and  listen  with  great 
respect  and  interest.  And  the  influence  of  a 
pure  and  living  faith  has  reached  far  and  wide 
through  Persia.  "Yes,"  said  a  peasant  who 
ran  along  the  road  to  talk  with  us  in  a  remote 
part  of  the  land,  ''I  know  your  religion.  It  is 
a  good  religion."  Some  day  Persia  will  come 
to  it. 

The  late  Dr.  Shedd  of  Oroomiah  maintained 

that  Persia  is  the  weak  point  of  Mohammedan- 
63 


Missions  and  Politics 

ism  for  the  reasons  that  (a)  the  Persians  being 
branded  as  heretics  by  the  Sunnees,  turn  rather  to 
Christians  for  aid  and  sympathy  than  to  the  rival 
sect,  and  are  more  accessible  than  any  other 
Moslems  to  the  Christian  missionary,  (b)  that  the 
Persians  as  a  people  are  more  liberal  and  tolerant 
than  any  other  Moslem  nation,  (c)  that  in  Persia 
Mohammedanism  is  divided  against  itself  more 
than  in  any  other  land,  new  heretical  sects  con- 
stantly arising  which  are  more  hostile  to  the 
other  sects  of  Islam  than  they  are  to  Christian- 
ity, and  (d)  that  Mohammedanism  has  failed  to 
help  and  bless  the  people.  The  people  are  com- 
ing to  see  its  fruits  and  also  the  fruits  of  Chris- 
tianity. Other  missionaries  believe  that  Moham- 
medanism has  lost  its  hold  on  multitudes  of  the 
people,  that  they  are  simply  amused  at  it,  that  if 
Islam  can  be  attacked  anywhere  it  is  in  Persia. 
One  of  the  most  experienced  and  successful  na- 
tive workers  among  the  Moslems,  expressed 
the  excessive  belief  that  thousands  of  Moham- 
medans would  accept  Christianity  if  there  were 
religious  liberty. 

To  return  then  at  the  close  to  the  thought  with 
which  I  introduced  this  lecture,  we  are  looking 
now  on  a  State  whose  old  forces  are  decadent 
and  corrupt.     Its  old  history  has  run  to  a  close. 

64 


Persia 

There  is  no  life  or  progress  in  the  Persian  State. 
There  is  no  life  or  progress,  though  vast  latent 
fanaticism,  in  the  Persian  religion.  New  forces 
must  make  the  new  history.  The  new  forces 
are  creeping  in.  Two  great  Nations  stand  on 
either  side.  The  advent  of  either  means  order. 
The  advent  of  one  means  progress.  I  believe  the 
advent  of  the  other  means  progress  also,  only 
with  slower  step.  And  Christianity  has  already 
entered.  It  has  wrought  quietly,  awaiting  the  day 
when  the  external  chains  of  Islam  will  be  taken 
off,  and  men  will  be  free  to  move;  but  it  has 
wrought  mightily.  The  old  forces  waning;  the 
waxing  of  the  new.  We  see  all  this.  But  we 
see  more,  one  certain  ground  of  faith;  for  the 
doom  of  Islam  as  a  dominant  tyranny  cannot  be 
far  distant  now  in  Persia.  The  State  that  once 
ruled  the  world,  that  once  was  the  world,  is 
shattered,  aged  and  doddering.  Shiahism  which 
broke  off  from  orthodox  Mohammedanism,  and 
contributed  for  a  while  to  the  strengthening  of 
Persia  as  a  separate  State,  has  also  weakened, 
sapped  of  life  and  genuine  power,  however  fer- 
vent its  fanaticism  and  however  strong  its  hold 
may  still  be  on  the  ecclesiastic  and  the  poor. 
"The   dead    man's  hand,"   as  Lord  Houghton 


65 


Missions  and  Politics 

called  it,  has  been  long  upon  the  land,  but  the 
time  of  its  lifting  will  come,  because, 

"  As  the  lifeblood  fills  the  growing  form, 
The  Spirit  Christ  has  shed, 
Flows  through  the  ripening  ages  fresh  and  warm 
More  felt  than  heard  or  read. 

"And,  therefore,  tho  ancestral  sympathies 
And  closest  ties  of  race 
May  guard  Mohammed's  precepts  and  decrees 
Through  many  a  tract  of  space, 

•'  Yet  in  the  end  the  tight  drawn  line  must  break, 
The  sapless  tree  must  fall, 
Nor  let  the  form  one  time  did  well  to  take. 
Be  tyrant  over  all." 


LECTURE  II 

Southern  Asia 


67 


"  We  work  on  the  refuse  of  worked-out  cities  and  exhausted 
civilization Sf  among  the  bones  of  the  dead^ 

Pagett  laughed.  "  That^s  an  epigrammatic  way  of  putting 
it,  Orde.^^ 

"  Is  it  ?  Lefs  see^^  said  the  Deputy  Conwiissioner  of  Amara, 
striding  into  the  sunshine  toward  a  half-naked  gardener  potting 
roses.  He  took  the  nian^s  hoe,  and  went  to  a  rain-scarped  bank 
at  the  bottom  of  the  garden. 

"  Come  here,  Pagett^''  he  said,  and  cut  at  the  sun-baked  soil. 
After  three  strokes,  there  rolled  fro?n  under  the  blade  of  the  hoe, 
the  half  of  a  clanking  skeleton  that  settled  at  Pagett'' s  feet  in  an 
unseemly  jumble  of  bones.     The  M.  P.  drew  back. 

"  Our  houses  are  built  on  cemeteries,"  said  Orde.  "  There 
are  scores  of  thousands  of  graves  within  ten  tnilcs." 

Pagett  tvas  contemplating  the  skull  with  the  aivcd  fascination 
of  a  man  who  has  but  little  to  do  with  the  dead. 

"India's  a  very  curious  place,"  said  he,  after  a  pause. 
RUDYARD  KiPUNG,  The  Enlightenments  of  Pagett^  M.  P. 


68 


LECTURE  II 

SOUTHERN   ASIA 

Turkey 

After  five  busy  months  in  Persia,  we  left 
Hamadan  in  the  depth  of  winter  for  the  long  ride 
over  ''The  Corpse  Road"  to  Bagdad,  and  hav- 
ing been  already  unduly  delayed,  we  crossed 
Southern  Asia  as  speedily  as  was  convenient  in 
order  to  reach  China  in  the  early  Spring.  This 
led  us  through  Turkey,  Arabia,  India,  Burmah 
and  the  Straits.  In  this  lecture  accordingly,  I 
would  speak  of  the  present  situation  and  of  the 
present  play  of  political  and  religious  forces  in 
the  three  peninsulas  which  stand  in  something 
more  than  a  fanciful  relationship  to  Spain,  Italy 
and  Greece,  their  counterparts  in  Europe. 

It  was  with  a  feeling  of  deep  awe  that  we 
drew  near  the  edge  of  the  Persian  plateau,  and 
waited  for  the  moment  when  from  the  last 
mountains  we  could  look  down  on  the  valleys 
which  would  lead  us  out  to  the  wide .  plains 
where  forty  centuries  ago  Abraham  fed  his 
flocks,  and  the  children  of  Abraham's  son  Isaac 

69 


Missions  and  Politics 

once  hung  their  harps  upon  the  willows,  but 
where  the  children  of  Abraham's  son  Ishmael 
now  roam  in  the  solitudes.  The  driving  snow, 
however,  hid  the  valleys  from  view.  But  the 
land  falls  sheer  away  from  the  last  Westward 
brow  of  the  Zagros  range,  and  in  five  hours  we 
were  free  of  winter  and  storm,  and  riding  under 
the  clear  sun,  and  in  three  days  in  the  midst  of 
palm  and  orange  trees,  until  at  last  across  a 
broad  plain,  whose  horizon  line  seemed  ever  to 
recede,  cracked  and  seamed  by  the  water  and 
the  sun,  and  broken  only  by  the  ruins  of  ancient 
water  trenches  or  by  soft  marshes,  we  saw  the 
great  wealth  of  deep  green  palm  fronds  over- 
topped by  the  glittering  domes  and  minarets 
which  told  us  that  the  weary  journey  from  old 
Ecbatana  to  the  City  of  the  Caliphs  was  done. 

Bagdad  is  the  seat  of  government  of  the  ex- 
treme Southeastern  provinces,  the  most  remote 
section  of  the  Turkish  Empire.  They  were  part 
of  the  first  territorial  conquests  of  Islam.  In  634 
Khalid  had  taken  Damascus.  Two  years  later 
the  Arab  armies  drove  Heraclius  out  of  Syria, 
and  defeated  the  Persians  at  Kadesia.  Jerusa- 
lem fell  the  following  year.  By  the  end  of  the 
seventh   century  the  Saracens   had  reached  the 

Oxus  in  Asia,  having  conquered  Persia,  Bokhara 
70 


Southern  Asia 

and  Turkestan,  and  Spain  and  lower  Gaul  had 
fallen  before  them  on  the  West  where  Akba  spur- 
ring his  horse  into  the  sea  had  cried,  "Great 
God,  if  my  course  were  not  stopped  by  the  sea, 
I  would  still  go  on  to  the  unknown  kingdoms  of 
the  West,  preaching  the  unity  of  Thy  Holy  Name, 
and  putting  to  the  sword  the  rebellious  nations 
which  refuse  to  call  upon  Thee."^  To  this  vic- 
torious march  in  the  West,  Charles  Martel  set  a 
limit  in  732,  and  three  centuries  later  the  Arabs 
were  driven  out  of  Italy.  Their  Western  losses 
were  repaired,  however,  by  Eastern  conquests 
under  the  Turks,  who  had  supplanted  the  Arabs 
and  who  reached  Jerusalem  in  1076;  while  in  the 
thirteenth  century  the  Seljukian  Turks  were  suc- 
ceeded by  the  Ottomans  who  took  Constanti- 
nople in  1453,  and  set  up  the  empire  which  has 
been  the  puzzle  and  the  curse  of  European  poli- 
tics ever  since.  In  these  four  centuries,  how- 
ever, the  Turkish  power  in  Europe  has  slowly 
crumbled  away.  Bosnia,  Herzegovina,  Illyricum, 
Greece,  Transylvania,  Moldavia,  Besarabia,  Po- 
dalia  and  the  Euxine  possessions  have  been 
stripped  off,  and  the  only  apparently  sure  terri- 
tory left  is  the  Asia  Minor  provinces,  while  Rus- 
sia hangs  ominously  over  these. 

'  Bosworth  Smith's  Mohammed  and  Mohammedanism,  pp.  30,  31. 

71 


Missions  and  Politics 

I  have  neither  time  nor  heart  to  discuss  at  any 
length  the  questions  of  European  politics  that 
concern  the  Ottoman  Empire,  but  desire  only  to 
call  attention  to  several  points  forced  on  the  trav- 
eller through  Southeastern  Turkey  in  Asia. 

I.  The  Turkish  government  is  evil  and  cor- 
rupt, and  ought  to  be  brought  to  an  end.  The 
most  earnest  apologist  for  Mohammedanism  and 
Mohammedan  institutions,  Mr.  Bosworth  Smith 
admits  "The  system  of  government,  never  an 
enlightened  one,  has  at  all  events  since  the  so- 
called  reforms  of  the  Sultan  Mahmoud  been  rotten 
at  the  core.  Stambul  has  become  an  asylum  for 
the  rascality  of  West  and  East  alike;  the  finest 
peasantry  in  the  world,  the  inhabitants  of  Asia 
Minor,  are  dying  by  starvation,  partly,  no  doubt, 
owing  to  bad  harvests,  but  still  more  owing  to 
the  neglect  of  the  most  ordinary  precautions  and 
duties  of  government.  Roads  unmade,  bridges 
broken  down,  mines  unworked,  unprincipled  and 
exorbitant  provincial  Pashas,  wastefulness  and 
disorder  and  excessive  centralization, — such  is  the 
picture  which  travellers  give  us  of  these  fair  re- 
gions of  the  earth,  and  unfortunately  we  know  it 
to  be  a  true  picture."^  This  was  written  twenty 
years  ago.     The  condition  is  worse  to-day.     Men 

*  Smith's  Mohammed  and  Mohammedanism^  p.  179. 

72 


Southern  Asia 

avoid  prosperity  and  all  evidence  of  thrift  because 
the  robbery  and  squeezing  they  invite  are  worse, 
than  poverty  and  need.  Unjust  taxation,  corrupt 
and  merciless  collections,  farming  of  revenues, 
unlicensed  official  rottenness,  are  mild  charges 
compared  with  what  might  be  made.  Rather 
than  describe  it,  I  prefer  to  quote  the  temperate 
words  of  Professor  Freeman ;  ' '  The  Turk  came  in 
as  an  alien  and  barbarian  encamped  on  the  soil  of 
Europe.  At  the  end  of  500  years,  he  remains  an 
alien  and  barbarian  encamped  on  soil  which  he 
has  no  more  made  his  own  than  it  was  when  he 
first  took  Kallipolis.  His  rule  during  all  that  time 
has  been  the  rule  of  strangers  over  enslaved  na- 
tions in  their  own  land.  It  has  been  the  rule  of 
cruelty,  faithlessness  and  brutal  lust;  it  has  not 
been  government,  but  organized  brigandage.  His 
rule  cannot  be  reformed.  While  all  other  nations 
get  better  and  better,  the  Turk  gets  worse  and 
worse.  And  when  the  chief  powers  of  Europe 
join  in  demanding  that  he  should  make  even  the 
smallest  reform,  he  impudently  refuses  to  make 
any.  If  there  was  anything  to  be  said  for  him 
before  the  late  Conference,  there  is  nothing  to  be 
said  for  him  now.  For  an  evil  which  cannot  be 
reformed,  there  is  one  remedy  only,  to  get  rid  of 
it.     Justice,  reason,  humanity  demand  that  the 

73 


Missions  and  Politics 

rule  of  the  Turk  in  Europe  should  be  got  rid  of, 
and  the  time  for  getting  rid  of  it  has  now  come."  ^ 
I  would  only  add  to  Freeman's  words,  that  subse- 
quent history  has  but  served  to  show  more 
plainly,  to  use  Gladstone's  phrase,  the  ''damning 
disgrace"  of  leaving  the  door  open  for  further 
Turkish  outrage  and  iniquity;  and  that  what  is 
true  of  the  corruption  and  injustice  of  European 
Turkey,  is  more  true  of  those  remote  sections 
where  the  Turk  has  his  own  way  undisturbed. 

2.  Secondly,  if  the  Turkish  government  is 
hard  upon  the  Arab  and  the  Turk,  it  is  yet  harder 
upon  the  Christian.  Christian  tribes  fought  side 
by  side  with  the  Arab  forces  in  the  Persian  wars, 
but  the  stern  laws  of  Islam  soon  drew  them  into 
the  great  mortar  wherein  men  were  pounded  into 
Islam,  slavery,  or  eternity.  Ever  since,  the  lot 
of  a  Christian  on  Turkish  soil,  where  the  State 
and  the  Church  are  one,  and  the  law  of  Islam  is 
the  law  of  the  civil  power,  has  been  anomalous 
and  it  has  been  agony.  For  ''the  Mohammedan 
law,"  as  the  best  of  modern  authorities  has 
shown,^  "(suspended  to-day,  but  not  repealed, 
being  regarded  as  of  divine  appointment)  pro- 
hibits   peaceful    relations  with    Mohammedans. 

*  Freeman's  The  Turk  in  Europe. 
*  Dwight's  Status  of  American  Missionaries  in  Turkey. 
74 


Southern  Asia 

Such  relations  would  produce  intermingling  of 
interests,  carefully  warded  off  by  the  dispositions 
of  the  founder  of  the  religion.  It  allows  the 
Sovereign  caliph  to  spare,  if  he  choose,  the  lives 
of  those  in  his  dominions  who  refuse  to  accept 
the  Moslem  faith  on  condition  of  their  paying  a 
special  tribute  or  head  tax.  But  it  provides  that 
the  collection  of  this  tax  be  made  harshly  in  order 
to  remind  the  unbeliever  of  his  abject  condition  as 
owing  even  his  life  to  favor.  It  leaves  the  caliph 
free  to  grant  peace  to  non-Mohammedan  nations, 
but  it  requires  him  to  break  his  treaties  of  peace 
as  soon  as  good  policy  permits  resumption  of  the 
war,  rendered  obligatory  by  the  refusal  of  such 
nations  to  accept  Islam.  It  permits  him  to  grant 
safety  to  non-Mohammedan  foreigners  whom 
he  may  admit  to  his  dominions,  but  it  categoric- 
ally declares  that  when  such  an  alien  has  dwelt  a 
year  in  Moslem  territory,  he  must  either  become 
a  Mussulman,  become  a  Zimme  (subject  who 
pays  head  tax)  or  leave  the  country."  That  these 
laws  are  suspended  does  not  alter  the  fact  that 
they  are  unchanged  and  unchangeable  as  the  laws 
of  God,  and  have  been  so  recognized  by  European 
ambassadors  in  Constantinople,  who  have  ac- 
cepted instead  of  their  abrogation,  an  assurance 

that  they  will  be  held  in  abeyance.     Only,  wher- 
75 


Missions  and  Politics 

ever  and  to  the  extent  that  their  principles  can  be 
enforced,  there  they  are  enforced.  Witness  the 
murdered  men,  the  outraged  women,  the  orphan 
children,  the  pillaged  homes  of  Armenia,  Bul- 
garia, Lebanon,  Damascus,  Kurdistan  and  Chios, 
in  the  sickening  massacres  which  have  marked 
the  alternate  decades  of  the  century.^ 

3.  The  Turkish  Government  has  been  held 
together  by  the  so-called  Christian  Governments 
of  Europe,  who  have  professed  to  be  acting  con- 
stantly in  the  interests  of  the  Christian  subjects 
of  the  Sultan.  In  1829,  by  the  Treaty  of  Adrian- 
ople  at  the  close  of  a  war  with  Russia,  Turkey 
promised  to  reform  her  treatment  of  Chris- 
tians, and  was  obliged  to  acknowledge  Russia's 
right  to  interfere  in  their  behalf.  In  1878,  just 
before  the  famous  Treaty  of  Berlin,  an  Anglo- 
Turkish  convention  was  made  with  these  words 
in  the  First  Article,  ''His  Imperial  Majesty,  the 
Sultan,  promises  to  England  to  introduce  neces- 
sary reforms  to  be  agreed  upon  later  between  the 
two  Powers,  into  the  government  and  for  the 
protection  of  the  Christian  and  other  subjects  of 
the  Porte  in  these  territories  (i.  e.  Armenia),  and 
in  order  to  enable  England  to  make  necessary 
provision    for    executing   her   engagement    (the 

'  British  Blue  Books,  Turkey,  Nos.  i  and  2,  1896. 

76 


Southern  Asia 

keeping  of  Russia  out  of  Armenia)  His  Imperial 
Majesty,  the  Sultan,  further  consents  to  assign 
the  Island  of  Cyprus  to  be  occupied  and  ad- 
ministered by  England."  The  Treaty  of  Berlin 
adopted  the  same  year,  declared  in  the  Sixty-first 
Article,  **The  Sublime  Porte  undertakes  to  carry 
out  without  further  delay,  the  improvements  and 
reforms  demanded  by  local  requirements  in  the 
provinces  inhabited  by  the  Armenians,  and  to 
guarantee  their  security  against  the  Circassians 
and  Kurds.  It  will  periodically  make  known  the 
steps  taken  to  this  effect  to  the  Powers,  who  will 
superintend  their  application."  In  these  ways 
the  European  Nations  and  Great  Britain,  preemi- 
nently, entered  into  partnership  with  Turkey, 
and  so  supported,  Turkey  has  been  able  to  do 
and  has  done  in  the  way  of  outrage  and  massa- 
cres what  could  not  otherwise  have  been  done. 
And  to-day,  her  subjects,  Moslem  and  Christian 
alike,  Arab  as  well  as  Armenian  in  Mesopotamia, 
are  suffering  from  an  accentuation  of  the  very 
evils  of  oppression  and  rotten  government  from 
which  the  Christian  nations  had  engaged  to  de- 
liver the  Christians.  And  why  ?  Because  of 
jealousy  and  the  interests  of  trade,  Great  Britain 
refusing  to  let  Constantinople  go  to  Russia  be- 
cause it  would  imperil  her  hold  on  Egypt  and 

77 


Missions  and  Politics 

the  route  to  India  and  the  East  by  Suez  and  the 
Red  Sea.  Treaty  conventions  and  the  lives  of 
Christians  were  of  no  account  in  comparison 
with  the  Suez  Canal.  And  yet  many  English- 
men in  Persia  or  Turkey,  even  British  consuls, 
candidly  admit  that  Russia  could  be  given  Con- 
stantinople, as  she  will  surely  have  it  in  time, 
without  fear.  This  would  bring  to  an  end  the 
Turk  in  Europe.  To  do  that  in  some  way,  Pro- 
fessor Freeman  declared  was  Great  Britain's  duty.  ^ 
"By  waging  a  war  on  behalf  of  the  Turk,  by 
signing  a  treaty  which  left  the  nations  of  South- 
eastern Europe  (and  Asia  Minor)  at  the  mercy  of 
the  Turk,  by  propping  up  the  wicked  power  of 
the  Turk  in  many  ways,  we  have  done  a  great 
wrong  to  the  nations  which  are  under  his  yoke; 
and  that  wrong  which  we  have  ourselves  done, 
it  is  our  duty  to  undo."  But  undone  as  to  Eu- 
rope, the  Turk  would  be  left  in  Asia  to  rule  from 
the  Mediterranean  to  Persia,  and  from  the  Euxine 
to  the  Persian  Gulf.  And  his  government  there, 
stronger  far  than  the  government  of  Persia,  is 
bad,  thoroughly  bad.  It  keeps  the  Arab  tribes 
from  tribal  wars,  but  it  plunders  them  of  their 
flocks  and  their  crops,  and  spreads  a  trail  of  des- 
olation over  the  whole  land.     Wherever  Islam 


78 


Southern  Asia 

has  gone  it  has  either  found  a  desert  or  made 
one/ 

4.  Dawn  is  still  far  distant  in  Eastern  Turkey. 
A  generation  ago  Mr.  Palgrave  thought  the  ele- 
ments of  permanency  were  coming  into  view 
when  the  Circassians,  driven  before  Muscovite 
power,  crossed  the  Turkish  frontier  and  **  coales- 
cing with  Kurds,  Turkomans  and  Arabs,"  set- 
tled down  on  the  uplands  of  Armenia  and  be- 
gan there,  as  he  believed,  the  formation  of  the 
nucleus  of  a  new  and  vigorous  and  united  Mo- 
hammedan nation.  Mr.  Bosworth  Smith  seized 
upon  Mr.  Palgrave's  opinion  and  looked  zealously 
forward  to  the  growth  of  the  new  nation,  the 
healing  of  the  breach  between  Sunnee  and  Shiah, 
even  as  in  the  days  of  Shamil,  a  regeneration  of 
Islam  which  would  lift  it  with  the  old  hot  Arab 
breath  to  stay  the  conquering  march  of  the  Rus- 
sian Colossus.^  The  spread  of  Islam  was  to  him 
a  blessing  and  a  joy  compared  with  the  growing 
dominion  of  the  Czar.  The  new  nation  has  not 
come,  and  whoso  looks  for  a  united  Mohammed- 
anism, forged  into  a  stable,  advancing  nation, 
will  look  long  and  will  look  in  vain.  The  races 
and  religion  of  Turkey  in  Asia  have  their  ele- 

'  Greene's  The  Armenian  Crisis  in  Turkey,  chaps,  v.,  viii. 
Ramsay's  Impressions  of  Turkey,  chaps,  vi.,  vii. 
'  Smith's  Mohammed  and  Mohammedanism,  pp.  270,  271. 

79 


Missions  and  Politics 

ments  of  strength,  but  they  have  no  elements  of 
progress;  and  though  the  real  faith  of  Islam  is 
capable  of  being  fanned  into  fanaticism  and  war 
again  and  again,  its  hold  on  conscience  has  weak- 
ened, and  its  power  has  decayed  forever. 

5.  Fifthly,  it  must  be  confessed  that  the  forces 
of  Christian  faith  among  the  Christian  subjects  of 
Turkey  and  of  Christian  Missions  have  as  yet 
played  no  great  part  in  the  development  of  his- 
tory in  Southeastern  Turkey.  It  has  been  a  field 
little  tilled  by  missionaries.  For  some  years  the 
C.  M.  S.^  has  maintained  a  feeble  station  at  Bag- 
dad, and  far  to  the  North,  American  missionaries 
have  worked  from  Mardin  and  Mosul.  Mosul 
has  been  abandoned,  however,  and  Mardin  is 
greatly  limited  in  its  work.  Looking  out  over  the 
broad  plains  which  stretch  from  the  Tigris  to  the 
Euphrates  and  beyond,  with  their  hundreds  of 
Bedouin  tribes,  or  passing  through  the  crowded 
bazaars  of  Bagdad  and  Busra  with  their  mem- 
ories of  their  Arab  founders  in  the  days  of  Islam's 
youth,  and  considering  how  feeble  is  the  effort 
which  the  Church  is  making  for  the  evangeliza- 
tion of  these  people,  one  is  deeply  impressed 
with  the  truth  that  God  has  other  forces  by 
which  He  works  toward  His  end  and  leads  His 

•  Church  Missionary  Society. 
80 


Southern  Asia 

world  on  into  light,  than  that  which  His  Son's 
disciples  are  supplying.  He  makes  history  none 
the  less.  Only  toward  that  ''far-off  divine  event, 
to  which  the  whole  creation  moves,"  how  much 
more  speedily  He  could  lead  these  people  and 
lands  if  we  would  but  turn  in  among  them  the 
mighty  forces  of  His  Gospel!  *Mn  Jerusalem 
the  gate  on  Mount  Moriah  toward  the  Mount 
of  Olives,  is  walled  up  to  this  hour,"  says 
Arnold,  **  because  of  the  tradition  that  whenever 
a  Christian  shall  pass  through  that  gate,  the  Mos- 
lem religion  and  the  Turkish  Empire  will  come 
to  an  end."  In  this  curious  Moslem  fancy  there 
is  this  much  truth,  that  it  is  in  Christian  hands  to 
hasten  or  to  retard  that  end, — for  which 

"  Christ  also  waits, 
But  men  are  slow  and  late." 

Arabia 

Arabia  is  of  little  moment  in  present  history. 

Its  great  deeds  are  done,  and  the  noble  chapters 

of  its  story  were  written  centuries  ago.    A  belt  of 

unprogressive  peoples  on  a  narrow  coast  around 

hot,  sandy  plains — there  is  little  more  save  here 

and  there  a  fertile  valley.     All  that  has  been  said 

of  the  unprogressiveness  of  Islam,  its  sterility,  its 

coldness,  its  corrupting  influence  taken  in  long 

history,  holds  with  reference  to  Arabia.     On  the 
81 


Missions  and  Politics 

east  coast  the  slave  trade  still  flourishes  under  the 
patronizing  hypocrisy  of  the  Sultan  of  Muscat, 
who  is  under  the  tutelage  of  France  and  Great 
Britain  alike,  and  who,  stripped  of  Zanzibar  and 
nicely  subsidized,  appears  outwardly  respectable, 
and  is  usually  peaceably  quiet  under  the  shadow 
of  his  old  Portuguese  forts.  Twenty  miles  in- 
land, however,  the  Sultan's  writs  run  not.  Out- 
side of  Muscat,  quaint,  romantic,  mediaeval,  rem- 
iniscent of  the  old  days  when  its  wealth  and 
the  wealth  of  Ormuzd  flowed  to  Ind,  only  two 
forces  are  disturbing  Arabia.  Along  the  East 
coast  the  Arabian  Mission  is  working  quietly, 
scattering  the  Scriptures  and  talking  to  men. 
And  in  the  South,  the  Scotch  Mission  founded 
by  Keith  Falconer,  is  still  carrying  on  the  work 
which  he  laid  down  ten  years  ago,  when  like 
Valiant  for  Truth,  his  sword  he  gave  to  him 
that  was  to  succeed  him  in  his  pilgrimage,  and 
his  courage  and  skill  to  him  that  could  get  it, 
while  his  marks  and  scars  he  carried  with  him, 
to  be  a  witness  for  him  that  he  had  fought  His 
battles  who  was  then  to  be  his  Rewarder.  ''So 
he  passed  over  and  all  the  trumpets  sounded  for 
him  on  the  other  side." 

The  other  force  working  in  Arabia  is  the  in- 
fluence of  Aden.     From  all  around  Somali-land, 

82 


Southern  Asia 

from  Hadramant,  from  Yemen,  from  the  coun- 
tries all  along  the  Red  Sea,  hundreds  come  to 
visit,  and  may  be  often  heard,  says  General 
Haig,^  "contrasting  the  two  conditions — the 
,peace,  the  order,  the  liberty,  the  just  adminis- 
tration of  the  law,  the  religious  toleration  to  be 
found  in  Aden,  with  the  very  reverse  of  all  these 
things  everywhere  else.  .  .  .  Aden  is  known 
to  the  remotest  corners  (of  Yemen)  and  the  peo- 
ple are  quietly  drawing  their  own  inferences  and 
sometimes  manifesting  preferences  which  are  evi- 
dently not  a  little  irritating  to  the  Turkish  author- 
ities." 

That  "neither  Christianity  nor  Judaism  ever 
struck  deep  root  in  the  Arabian  soil "  as  the  great 
apologist  for  Islam  says,  "is  true,"  but  he  adds, 
"the  people  were  not  suited  to  them,  or  they 
were  not  suited  to  the  people.  They  lived  on, 
on  sufferance  only,  till  a  faith,  which  to  the  Arabs 
should  be  the  more  living  one,  should  sweep 
them  away."  How  long  shall  we  let  this  chal- 
lenge and  condemnation  stand  ?  Whoever  takes 
it  up  needs  God  v/ith  him;  for  man  will  be 
against  him  utterly. 

India 

From  Mohammedanism  under  its  own  rulers, 

'  Sinker's  Memorial  of  Ion  Keith  Falconer,  pp.  142,  143,  229. 

83 


Missions  and  Politics 

retrograding  into  the  past  beyond  mediaevalism, 
and  crushing  its  few  Christian  subjects,  to  Mo- 
hammedanism under  a  Christian  Empress,  mov- 
ing forward,  educated,  liberated  and  with  no 
power  to  crush  save  by  insurrection,  is  in  time 
a  long  transition.  In  space,  a  few  miles  over  the 
Arabian  Sea  opens  the  door  of  the  new  order. 
The  waters  were  as  light  as  a  moonlit  sky  as  we 
crossed  one  night  last  Spring,  from  Muscat  to 
Kurrachee.  The  phosphorescence  gleamed  over 
the  sea  as  a  mystic  fire.  It  rolled  from  the  bows 
of  the  ship  in  great  billows  of  emerald.  Schools 
of  fish  broke  it  into  constellations  and  Milky 
Ways.  Flying  things  skimmed  over  it  like 
rockets  of  ships  in  distress.  The  revolutions 
of  the  screw  stood  distinct  in  the  sea  like  the 
coils  of  a  great  serpent,  and  the  log  line  left  a 
long  luminous  cut  in  the  water  astern.  As  we 
leaned  on  the  rail  and  watched  the  play  of  light 
over  the  quiet  sea,  we  looked  back  through  the 
night  to  the  dark  lands  we  were  leaving  behind, 
and  turned  forward  to  those  days  of  which  Islam 
has  never  even  prophesied,  when 


"All  men's  good 
Is  each  man's  rule,  and  universal  love 
Lies  like  a  shaft  of  light  across  the  land, 
And  like  a  lane  of  beams  athwart  the  sea. 
Through  all  the  circle  of  the  golden  year." 

84 


Southern  Asia 

Is  India  indeed  showing  men  the  dawning  of  a 
new  day  for  Asia,  or  the  futility  of  all  our  hopes 
of  it  ?  Which  ?  What  it  is  teaching  men,  the 
lessons  of  God's  shaping  of  its  history  and  of  the 
present  unfolding  of  its  mighty  forces,  is  a  study 
unsurpassed,  surely,  in  human  interest. 

As  an  introduction  to  it  and  to  a  great  deal  else 
that  is  helpful  to  a  man's  understanding  of  this 
world  and  this  day,  I  should  like  to  suggest  to 
you  Professor  Seeley's  Expansion  of  England,  a. 
book  that  has  done  for  England's  political  think- 
ing, perhaps,  what  the  author's  other  book,  Ecce 
Homo  did  for  England's  theological  thinking. 
Each  book  ran  a  plowshare  through  British  con- 
ceptions, and  made  ready  the  beaten  field  for  a 
fresh  sowing  and  a  larger  reaping.  Professor 
Seeley  suggests  much  of  what  is  said  about  India 
in  this  lecture.  Many  of  the  deeper  meanings  of 
the  Queen's  Anniversary  were  the  fruits  of  Seeley's 
planting,  nay  rather  of  that  divine  planting  that, 
mock  as  men  often  may,  and  despite  its  selfish- 
ness and  disobedience,  has  been  using  the  British 
race  in  a  way  unique  and  supreme. 

Nowhere  is  this  better  illustrated  than  in  India, 
where  the  presence  of  Great  Britain  in  India,  the 
way  she  came  there,  what  she  has  been  doing, 
and  the  fascinating  issues  of  the  future,  constitute 

85 


Missions  and  Politics 

as  curious  a  problem  as  is  to  be  found  in  history. 
The  Holy  Roman  Empire  was  not  more  wonder- 
ful or  significant.  Indeed,  if  to  the  countries  of 
the  Roman  Empire  were  added  the  whole  of  Ger- 
many, the  Slavonic  countries  not  included  in 
Russia  and  Scandinavia,  the  resulting  empire  in 
population  and  extent  would  be  but  roughly  equal 
to  India.  And  Great  Britain  rules  this.  The  most 
democratic  and  Christian  of  European  powers  has 
usurped  the  succession  of  the  Great  Mogul. 
"  How  can  the  same  Nation,"  asks  Seeley,  "pur- 
sue two  lines  of  policy  so  radically  different 
without  bewilderment,  be  despotic  in  Asia  and 
democratic  in  Australia,  be  in  the  East  at  once  the 
greatest  Mussulman  power  in  the  world — ruling 
in  Bengal  over  more  Moslems  than  the  Sultan  has 
in  his  whole  empire,  the  guardian  of  the  property 
of  thousands  of  idol  temples,  and  at  the  same 
time,  in  the  West  be  the  foremost  champion  of 
free  thought  and  spiritual  religion ;  stand  out  as  a 
great  military  imperialism  to  resist  the  march  of 
Russia  in  Central  Asia,  at  the  same  time  that  it 
fills  Queensland  and  Manitoba  with  free  settlers  ? 
Never  certainly  did  any  nation,  since  the  world  be- 
gan, assume  anything  like  so  much  responsibility." 
By  assuming  this  responsibility  Great  Britain  has 
become  involved  in  all  sorts  of  questions  from 

86 


Southern  Asia 

which  she  would  otherwise  have  been  free,  In- 
dia and  India  almost  alone  has  involved  her  in 
differences  with  Russia.  No  India,  no  Eastern 
Question.  No  Eastern  Question — the  whole  his- 
tory of  the  last  two  generations  would  have  to  be 
rewritten;  who  can  speculate  as  to  what  their 
history  would  have  been,  with  Egypt,  Constanti- 
nople, Afghanistan,  Burmah  out  of  British  poli- 
tics ? 

And  on  the  side  of  India  this  relationship  is 
most  interesting.  It  is  scarcely  accurate  to  say 
that  it  has  been  a  conquest  of  India.  There  has 
been  no  spoliation  nor  any  enslavement.  India 
has  not  been  tributary.  Her  taxes  have  been 
spent  on  herself.  "The  money  drawn  from 
India  has  been  used  in  the  government  of  India, 
and  only  that  has  been  levied  which  was  supposed 
to  be  needed  for  this  purpose."  Yet  she  has  been 
subject  to  rulers  who  did  not  colonize  her,  but 
who  made  her  freer  than  she  had  ever  been  be- 
fore; who  never  maintained  an  army  greater  than 
80,000  in  number  while  they  trained  armies  of 
her  own  people  twice  as  great  -as  their  own ;  and 
whose  whole  number  never  sustained  a  greater 
proportion  to  the  natives  than  one  to  one  thou- 
sand; who  tried  to  persuade  her  that  they  were 

leaving  her  old  life  unmolested,  and  only  offering 
87 


Missions  and  Politics 

her  optional  advantages,  while  they  were  in  re- 
ality and  in  best  of  conscience  hewing  the  very 
foundations  away  from  all  the  old  life  and  ways, 
and  in  matter  of  fact,  from  under  their  own  po- 
sition as  rulers. 

How  did  all  this  come  about,  and  what  is  to  be 
the  end  of  it  ?  It  is  a  situation  that  will  well  re- 
pay analysis. 

I.  First,  then,  there  never  has  been  such  a 
unity  as  India.  The  name  has  seemed  to  imply 
that  there  was  an  Indian  nation  and  an  Indian 
people,  but  in  this  it  has  been  misleading.  There 
is  no  common  Indian  people.  There  is,  as  the 
India  Census  Report  says,  a  "  heterogeneous  mass 
that  is  known  as  the  people  of  India";  but  it  is 
less  one  than  the  peoples  of  Europe.  Formerly 
European  writers  divided  the  population  into 
two  races; — Hindu  and  Mohammedan;  but  as  Sir 
Wm.  Hunter  points  out,  four  well-marked  ele- 
ments are  now  recognized;  first,  "the  non-Aryan 
tribes,  called  the  Aborigines,  and  their  half  Hindu- 
ized  descendants  numbering  about  one-tenth  of 
the  population;  second,  the  comparatively  pure 
offspring  of  the  Aryan  or  Sanscrit  speaking  race 
(the  Brahmans  or  Rajputs)  about  the  same  in 
number;     third,    the    great    mixed    population, 

known  as  the  Hindus,  which  has  grown  out  of 
88 


Southern  Asia 

the  Aryan  and  non-Aryan  elements  (chiefly  the 
latter),  contributing  two-thirds  of  the  population; 
and  fourth,  the  Mohammedans,  numbering  ac- 
cording to  the  census  of  1890,  57,321,164.  The 
ethnological  history  of  India  begins,  where  our 
vision  ends,  with  a  struggle  between  two  races 
for  the  soil.  One  race  had  come  in  from  West 
Central  Asia  and  was  of  fair  skin.  The  other 
race  was  dark  and  of  lower  type.  The  pure  de- 
scendants of  either  race  now  nearly  equal  those 
of  the  other.  Their  mixed  descendants  constitute 
the  great  mass  of  the  people,  and  a  Moslem  race 
from  the  Northwest  supplied  the  other  element."  V 

As  there  has  not  been  since  the  dawn  of  this 
struggle  in  the  dim  past  one  Indian  race,  neither 
has  there  been  one  Indian  language.  The  last 
Census  returns  not  less  than  one  hundred  lan- 
guages, two-thirds  of  the  people  speaking  Aryo-^ 
Indie  tongues,  and  one-fifth  Dra vidian,  the  rest" 
being  scattered  among  Kolarian,  Aryo-Eranic, 
Tibeto-Burmah,  Sinitic,  etc.  The  Aryo-Indic 
tongues,  Bengali,  Marathi,  Gujerathi,  etc.,  though 
descendants  of  the  ancient  language,  did  not  and 
do  not  constitute  those  who  use  them  one  people. 

Nor  had  the  people  of  India  ever  had,  prior  to 
British  sovereignty,  any  common  national  inter- 

*  Hunter's  Indian  Empire,  p.  68. 
89 


Missions  and  Politics 

est.  They  had  never  been  in  the  habit  of  form- 
ing a  single  whole  in  politics.  There  are  dim 
traditions  of  this  or  that  early  king  as  having  been 
lord  of  all  India,  but  nothing  ever  as  nearly  ap- 
proximated a  common  kingdom  over  all  of  India 
as  the  Mogul  Emperors  set  up,  and  yet  no  one  of 
them  ever  ruled  over  the  whole  of  India.  If  we 
date  the  beginning  of  their  empire  from  the  cap- 
ture of  Lahore  by  Beber  in  1 524,  it  was  not  until 
1594  that  Akber  had  conquered  Bengal  and  Sind 
and  Gujerat,  and  so  was  king  of  Hindustan;  and 
then  none  of  the  country  to  the  South  was  his. 
The  Nerbudda  was  his  boundary.  And  only  in 
1683  was  a  great  invasion  of  the  Deccan  made  by 
Aurungzebe,  while  by  that  time  the  Mahratha 
power  was  already  rising  in  the  South,  and  in  a 
generation  the  Mogul  power  began  to  decline. 
India  was  never  a  political  unit. 

Nor  was  India  consolidated  by  a  common  reli- 
gion. At  first  glance  it  would  appear  to  be  other- 
wise. Seventy-two  per  cent,  of  the  population 
are  returned  by  the  Census  as  attached  to  the 
Brahmanic  system,  and  looking  back  upon  the 
assaults  made  on  Brahmanism  and  the  way  they 
have  been  repulsed,  it  might  be  felt  that  in  the 
matter  of  religion  India  is  substantially  one.  But 
it  must  be  noted  on  the  other  hand,  that  though 

90 


Southern  Asia 

the  Buddhist  revolt  in  the  sixth  century  b.  c, 
and  the  Greek  invasions  in  the  fourth  century 
A.  D.  were  both  in  the  end  overcome,  they  left 
their  influence,  as  have  the  non-Aryan  tribes  and 
the  non-Aryan  low  castes  incorporated  from 
them.  All  of  these  influences  and  "the  reac- 
tion against  the  low  beliefs,  priestly  oppressions 
and  bloody  rites  which  resulted  from  the  com- 
promise between  Brahmanism  and  aboriginal 
worship,"  which  received  special  impetus  from 
Sankar  Acharja  who  founded  the  great  Sivaite 
sect  about  700  a.  d.,  had  rent  Hinduism  into  sec- 
tions before  the  influence  of  Western  education 
and  religion  crashed  against  its  foundations 
with  the  impetus  of  God.  While  Brahmanism 
contained  the  germ  perhaps  of  a  common  nation- 
ality, its  weakness  was  shown  in  its  practically 
making  room  for  Mohammedanism,  which  re- 
fused to  be  assimilated  in  easy  compliance  with 
the  loose  compromising  ways  of  Hinduism. 
Islam  came  challenging  racial,  political,  religious, 
linguistic  antipathy.  Brahmanism  did  not  have 
spirit  to  express  itself  in  patriotism.  Nor  did  it 
even  when  the  Mahratha  power  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  Brahman  caste  arose  in  Central  India. 
In  Brahmanism  itself  there  has  been  neither  the 
power  nor  the  reality  of  unity.     Moreover,  out- 

91 


Missions  and  Politics 

side  of  strict  Brahmanism,  Buddliism  has  left  the 
Jain  sect,  numbering  1,416,638  now,  who  "deny 
the  authority  of  the  Veda,  .  .  .  disregard 
sacrifice,  practise  a  strict  morality,  believe  that 
their  past  and  their  future  states  depend  upon 
their  own  actions  rather  than  on  any  external 
deity,  and  scrupulously  reverence  the  vital  prin- 
ciple in  man  and  beast.  "^  Besides  the  Jains,  the 
Sikhs  have  arisen  to  augment  the  want  of  ex- 
ternal unity,  but  warring  not  against  Hindus  so 
much  as  against  Islam ;  while  to  all  of  this  con- 
fusion, the  Mussulmans  are  added.  In  712  the 
young  Kasim  secured  foothold  in  Sind  which  the 
Hindus  did  not  regain  until  828.  Mahmoud  of 
Ghazni,  however,  fixed  the  yoke  securely  in 
looi,  and  the  house  of  Ghor,  the  Slave  Kings, 
the  Sayids  and  the  Moguls,  with  lesser  men, 
brought  the  Moslem  dynasties  down  to  the  be- 
ginning of  this  century.  In  no  regard,  there- 
fore,— race,  language,  government  or  religion, 
was  India  a  common  nation.^  It  had  no  sense 
of  unity  or  consciousness  of  nationality. 

2.  Secondly,  it  was  because  India  had  no 
sense  of  unity  or  consciousness  of  nationality 
that  the  Indian  peoples  passed  so  easily  under 

'  Hunter's  Indian  Empire,  p.  155. 
'India  Census,  i8pi,  General  Report,  chap,  v.,  pp.  121-208. 

92 


Southern  Asia 

the  government  of  the  British  Empire.  The  land 
was  a  jarring,  warring  tangle  of  native  states  and 
seditions  and  corruptions,  lush  as  a  great  jungle, 
when  the  French  and  the  English  began  the  ri- 
valry of  trade.  The  East  India  Company  came 
into  existence  in  1600,  and  it  was  created  solely 
for  the  purpose  of  trade.  War  with  the  native 
states  was  not  thought  of  at  all;  and  when  more 
than  a  century  later  it  was  thought  of,  it  was  not 
for  territorial  aggrandizement,  but  in  support  of 
trade.  In  1748  the  Company  undertook,  owing 
to  disturbances  in  the  Deccan,  the  functions  of 
war  and  government.  It  was  not  the  will  of  the 
directors  of  the  Company  to  create  an  Empire. 
The  Empire  came  into  existence  through  forces 
overruling  their  will,  against  which  they  strug- 
gled in  vain.  Even  the  idea  of  armed  inter- 
ference was  not  original  with  them.  Dupleix, 
the  Frenchman,  made  the  two  discoveries  that 
led  to  the  conquest,  if  it  may  be  so  called,  of 
India,  "  i.  The  weakness  of  the  native  armies 
against  European  discipline.  2.  The  facility  of 
imparting  that  discipline  to  natives  in  the  Euro- 
pean service,"  and  Dupleix  began  European  Em- 
pire in  India  when  acting  on  these  principles  he 
interfered  in  the  war  of  succession  in  Hyderabad 

that  broke  out  on  the  death  of  the  great  Nizam 
93 


Missions  and  Politics 

ul  Mulk  in  1748,  and  so  hoped  to  gain  the  bal- 
ance of  power.  The  Company  took  up  arms 
first  to  defend  its  fortunes  and  then  to  spread  its 
trade,  by  widening  its  influence  and  pacifying 
society.  It  was  not  a  war  to  conquer  or  subdue 
a  nation.  The  idea  of  a  British  army  of  a  few 
hundred  men  conquering  India,  or  of  80,000  men 
holding  now  296,000,000  in  subjection  is  absurd. 
The  conquest  was  an  internal  revolution  in  In- 
dian society,  rather  than  an  external  invasion  of 
one  State  upon  another.  India  presented  no 
united  character.  It  had  been  ruled  in  sections 
by  foreigners.  Many  of  its  people  were  foreign- 
ers. The  British  conquered  by  means  of  native 
armies.  Absolute  political  deadness  ruled  in  the 
whole  country.  For  centuries  before  the  British 
came,  the  great  governments  were  alien, — Mos- 
lem. The  State  rested  on  power  or  skill;  not  on 
right  or  sense  of  nationality.  There  was  no  pa- 
triotism. It  was  by  taking  advantage  of  this  ab- 
sence of  national  unity  and  by  playing  section 
against  section  that  a  little  handful  of  English- 
men became  masters  of  the  whole  country. 

It  soon  passed  out  of  the  hands  of  private 
individuals  organized  as  a  trading  company  into 
the  hands  of  the  British  Empire.  For  though  the 
East  India  Company  was  a  private  concern,  and 

94 


Southern  Asia 

in  1765  nominally  held  office  under  the  Empire 
of  the  Great  Mogul,  it  had  been  recognized  in 
the  British  Parliament,  yes  at  once  asserted,  that 
whatever  territorial  acquisitions  the  Company 
made  were  under  the  control  of  Parliament,  though 
Parliament  never  asked  consent  of  the  Great  Mo- 
gul. The  Company  in  his  service  took  provinces, 
submitted  them  to  the  control  of  Great  Britain, 
and  when  in  1858  the  Company  was  abolished  its 
vast  possessions  passed  under  the  British  Crown. 
The  Company  was  a  trading  company.  It  en- 
gaged in  war  and  took  lands  and  kingdoms  for 
the  advantage  of  its  trade.  Under  Hastings  a 
mere  spirit  of  rapacity  hurried  on  the  conquest. 
Later,  under  Lord  Wellesley,  Great  Britain  began 
to  see  what  a  vast  trust  was  given  to  her,  and 
the  theory  of  intervention  and  annexation  was 
deliberately  laid  down.  Lord  Dalhousie  carried 
it  forward  with  a  high  and  violent  hand.  Small 
men  played  their  part.  Save  for  the  trade.  Great 
Britain  would  over  and  over  again  have  lamented 
her  responsibility,  and  doubtless  would  have 
dropped  it.  When  India  cannot  pay  all  her  own 
expenses,  and  ceases  to  be  profitable  as  a  field 
for  trade,  England  will  withdraw  as  soon  as 
possible.  Let  those  who  think  her  too  high- 
minded  and  unselfish  for  this,  remember  Khar- 
95 


Missions  and  Politics 

toum  and  the  fall  of  Chinese  Gordon/  But  none 
the  less,  above  all  elements  of  national  glory  and 
purely  selfish  trade,  a  high-minded  recognition  of 
a  great  purpose  in  being  thus  charged  with  the 
education  of  a  nation  embracing  one-fifth  of  the 
human  race,  has  had  its  place  in  the  sober  think- 
ing of  the  British  Empire. 

In  nothing  has  this  spirit  been  better  shown 
than  in  the  tremendous  work  Great  Britain  has 
done  toward  creating  that  very  sense  of  national 
unity  and  power  which  would  have  rendered  ab- 
solutely impossible  the  establishment  of  British 
dominion  if  it  had  been  in  existence  when  that 
dominion  was  imposed.  The  old  India  was  rent 
into  little  kingdoms  and  tribes.  The  new  is  one 
of  the  most  highly  centralized  governments  on 
earth.  While  fine  roads  and  railroads  are  bind- 
ing the  country  ever  closer  together.  The  open- 
ing of  the  civil  service  to  natives  schools  them 
deeply  in  the  idea  of  national  unity.  The  great 
educational  system  of  the  Empire  trains  thou- 
sands of  the  young  men  of  India,  giving  them 
all  that  Europe  has.  They  know  the  history  of 
India,  the  principles  of  political  science,  the  rela- 

'  "  Foreigners  do  not  appear  to  realize  the  business  view  we  take  of  war  as 
of  other  matters  where  our  business  interests  are  concerned.     Our  conduct 
is  regulated  mainly  by  business  considerations." — London  Tt'mes,  quoted  in 
London  despatch  to  New  York  Sm«,  March  lo,  1898. 
96 


Southern  Asia 

tive  dimensions  of  nations,  their  populations  and 
resources  and  relations.  The  relations  of  India 
to  England  they  well  understand,  on  what  the 
British  possession  rested,  and  on  what  it  rests. 
They  know  the  movements  of  Russia  and  their 
relation  to  the  future  of  Asia.  They  have  their 
English  and  vernacular  press.  A  great  body  of 
public  opinion  is  growing  up.  They  know  that 
the  world  speaks  of  India  as  a  unity.  They 
know  that  Great  Britain  deals  with  India  as  a 
unity.  The  sense  of  unity,  of  nationality  is  de- 
veloping. From  the  day  British  power  began  to 
establish  everywhere  order,  law,  trade,  education, 
it  was  inevitable  that  this  should  be  the  result. 

3.  India  was  not  a  nation.  Therefore  Great 
Britain  conquered  it  and  has  held  it.  Great  Brit- 
ain is  making  it  a  nation.  What  will  be  the  re- 
sult ?  Twenty  years  ago  the  shrewdest  students 
of  history  were  saying  this:  *'  If  there  could  arise 
in  India  a  nationality  movement  similar  to  that 
.  .  .  in  Italy,  the  English  Power  would  not 
even  make  the  resistance  that  was  made  in  Italy 
by  Austria,  but  must  succumb  at  once.  ...  If 
the  feeling  of  a  common  nationality  began  to 
exist  there  only  feebly — if  without  inspiring  any 
active  desire  to  drive  out  the  foreigner,  it  only 
created  a  notion  that  it  was  shameful  to  assist 

97 


Missions  and  Politics 

him  in  maintaining  his  dominion — from  that  day 
almost  our  Empire  would  cease  to  exist;  for  of 
the  army  by  which  it  is  garrisoned,  two-thirds 
consist  of  native  soldiers."  This  feeling  is  ab- 
sent; there  is  no  love  of  independence  because  it 
presupposes  a  political  consciousness  that  is  lack- 
ing. ''Long  submission  makes  the  people  pas- 
sively tolerant  of  any  Government.  The  people 
of  India  are  satisfied  with  ours."  The  Mutiny  was 
wholly  an  army  movement  and  was  subdued  by 
using  the  people  of  India  themselves  against  it. 
"So  long  as  that  can  be  done,"  went  on  the  stu- 
dents of  twenty  years  ago,  "and  so  long  as  the 
population  has  not  formed  the  habit  of  criticising 
their  Government,  whatever  it  may  be,  and  of 
rebelling  against  it,  the  government  of  India  from 
England  is  possible.  ...  On  the  other  hand, 
if  this  feeling  ever  does  spring  up,  if  India  does 
begin  to  breathe  as  a  single  national  whole — and 
our  own  rule  is  perhaps  doing  more  than  ever 
was  done  by  former  governments  to  make  this 
possible, — then  ...  the  feeling  would  soon 
gain  the  native  army,  and  on  the  native  army  we 
ultimately  depend  .  .  .  and  the  moment  a 
mutiny  is  but  threatened  which  shall  be  no  mere 
mutiny  but  the  expression  of  a  universal  feel- 
ing of  nationality,  at  that  moment  all  hope  is  at 

98 


Southern  Asia 

an  end,  as  all  desire  ought  to  be  at  an  end,  of 
preserving  our  Empire.  For  we  are  not  really 
conquerors  of  India,  and  we  cannot  rule  her  as 
conquerors;  if  we  undertook  to  do  so,  it  is  not 
necessary  to  inquire  whether  we  could  succeed, 
for  we  should  assuredly  be  ruined  financially  by 
the  mere  attempt."^ 

No  shrewder  forecast  could  have  been  made. 
But  it  reaches  far  on  into  the  future.  There  is 
as  yet  no  universal  feeling  of  nationality.  Reli- 
gious feud  between  Moslem  and  Hindu  is  still  a 
bar  to  unity.  Large  classes  are  interested  in  the 
maintenance  of  the  present  order.  And  national 
pride,  trade  interests,  and  the  momentum  of  tra- 
dition would  lead  Great  Britain  to  crush  any 
present  mutiny  as  effectually  as  the  Sepoy  Re- 
bellion. 

Nevertheless,  the  murmurs  of  discontent  were 
never  louder  than  at  the  present  time,  and  they 
are,  in  the  main,  expressions  of  the  growing  na- 
tional sentiment  of  the  people,  though  each  com- 
plaint or  stir  of  excitement  springs  out  of  its  own 
conditions.  As  Sir  Richard  Temple  has  pointed 
out,  **The  peace  and  security  (and  justice,)  in- 
troduced and  maintained  (by  the  British  Govern- 
ment) closes  many  avenues  against  restless  ambi- 

*Seeley's  Expansion  of  England,  pp.  262,  263. 
99 


Missions  and  Politics 

tion,  shuts  off  many  careers  of  enterprise  and  ad- 
venture, wrecks  the  self-reliance,  stifles  the  aspira- 
tions and  deadens  the  energies  of  many"^  used 
to  the  lax  rules  of  politics  and  gain  which  are  al- 
lowed elsewhere  to  control  in  Asiatic  life.  The 
village  peasantry  have  gained  greatly  in  the  es- 
tablishment of  order  and  quiet,  and  to  some  ex- 
tent of  honesty;  but  below  the  superficial  crust 
of  British  influence,  the  old  tides  run  dark  and 
strong  still,  and  these  village  people  most  bene- , 
fited  are  the  fanatics  in  religion,  while  of  short 
memory,  slight  gratitude  and  great  ignorance  of 
history  and  the  world.  The  educated  natives  are 
the  men  who  voice  the  complaints  in  congresses, 
on  the  platform,  and  in  the  press.  Hungry  for 
office  they  grudge  the  British  civilian  his  posi- 
tion and  authority,  and  overcrowd  the  profes- 
sions. The  true  Hindus  despise  sincerely  their 
British  rulers,  look  contemptuously  upon  their 
cut  and  dried  scientific  knowledge,  arid  and  un- 
interesting beside  their  own  rich  reverie  and  the 
luxury  of  their  unbounded  speculation,  and  long 
for  their  old  Oriental  ways.  The  dominant  at- 
titude of  the  British  nettles  the  Hindu  into  hatred. 
Moreover,  all  the  efforts  of  the  Government  to 
elevate  the  lower  classes,  who  do  not  appreciate 

'Temple's  India  in  i88o,  p.  107. 

100 


Southern  Asia 

being  elevated,  tend  to  depress  in  comparison 
those  higher  classes  who  once  ruled  the  land, 
monopolizing  the  posts  of  office  and  growing 
rich  out  of  rule.  The  agitating  class  denounces 
British  rule  as  impoverishing,  sapping  the  life 
from  the  land.  They  declare  that  pensions  to 
retired  British  officers  amount  to  more  than  all 
the  salaries  paid  to  active  native  office-holders. 
"India  for  Indians,"  they  cry — a  shout  of  na- 
tionalism arising  at  last.  It  does  not  avail  to 
point  out  that  under  the  Mogul  Empire,  1593- 
1761,  the  tax  returns  were  sixty  millions  sterling 
a  year,  while  for  the  ten  years  ending  1879, 
under  the  British  Empire  in  India,  with  a  far 
larger  population  and  territory,  the  returns  were 
only  on  the  average  thirty-five  millions,  nor  to  say 
that  under  the^  former  the  land  tax  was  nearly 
twice  what  it  was  under  the  latter,  and  that  the 
rates  are  far  less  than  in  Japan.  Why  will  these 
answers  not  suffice  ?  Because  the  sense  of  na- 
tionality is  developing.  Good  government,  fam- 
ine relief,  the  most  heroic  and  self-sacrificing  ef- 
forts to  delay  and  to  slay  the  bubonic  plague — 
these  instead  of  calling  forth  complete  loyalty, 
are  now  made  the  grounds  of  fresh  agitation  and 
the  pretext  even  of  riot  and  assassination.^ 

•  Monier  Williams'  Modern  India,  pp.  176-179,  343-365. 

101 


Missions  and  Politics 

Among  the  Moslems  of  late  things  have  been 
even  worse.  The  victories  of  Turkey  in  Greece 
have  stirred  the  Moslem  world  not  with  devotion 
to  the  Sultan  as  caliph,  though  that  might  come 
if  it  were  safe  and  could  be  shown  to  be  to  the 
interest  of  all,  but  to  the  military  mission  of  Islam. 
Sir  William  Hunter  names  one  of  the  chapters  of 
his  book  on  Our  Indian  Mussulmans,  **The 
Chronic  Conspiracy  within  our  Territory,"  refer- 
ring to  the  incessant  agitation  kept  up  by  the 
Wahabi  preachers  calling  the  faithful  to  a  holy 
war,  and  so  constantly  rousing  the  class  which 
lost  most  by  the  British  Power,  the  class  of 
proudest  memories,  and  of  most  virile  religious 
life.  The  leader  of  the  Wahabi  movement  in 
India  was  Sayid  Ahmad,  who  in  1826,  preached 
a  Jehad  against  the  Sikhs.  Ever  since,  the 
Wahabis  have  been  preaching  not  treason,  but 
doctrines  which  lead  to  it,  and  with  what  political 
instigation  it  is  impossible  to  say.  And  last  year 
some  mollah,  called  mad,  contributed  largely  to 
the  troubles  on  the  Northwest  frontier,  by  his 
wild  exhortations  ;  the  chronic  panic  fear  of  the 
British  Nation  lest  the  route  of  the  Khyber  Pass, 
which  since  Mahmud  of  Ghazni,  has  been  the 
beaten   road    of    invasion,    and  the  only   point 

where  India  is  vulnerable  by  land,  should  be  in 
102 


Southern   Asia 

some  way  betrayed  into  hostile  control,  fur- 
nishing the  best  of  fuel  for  a  conflagration,  and 
fuel  always  available  for  Moslem  agitators. 

Thus  all  that  Great  Britain  has  done  to  unify 
India,  to  supply  education  and  political  vitality, 
even  the  purely  beneficent  blessings  of  charity, 
and  especially  the  attempt  to  keep  India  inviolate 
by  shady  diplomatic  deals  with  the  Amir  of  Af- 
ghanistan and  war  beyond  Peshawur  have  served 
merely  to  develop  and  strengthen  a  national  con- 
sciousness and  a  sense  of  revolt  against  Western 
rule  among  the  increasing  disaffected  classes. 

4.  Fourthly:  The  one  element  which  in  the 
education  of  India  would  have  averted  the  perils 
now  to  be  faced,  the  British  Government  did  not 
supply.  For  a  long  while  indeed,  the  East  India 
Company  studiously  set  itself  to  prevent  the  en- 
trance into  India  of  this  element.  The  Company 
desired  **to  keep  India  wholly  as  a  kind  of  in- 
violate paradise,"  and  strove  to  shut  out  all  that 
was  European  save  trade.  Even  if  the  Company 
had  succeeded  in  this,  and  had  been  followed  in 
the  same  policy  by  Great  Britain,  trade  and  unity 
of  government  would  have  produced  the  sense 
of  unity,  of  nationality,  though  far  more  slowly, 
which  has  now  been  produced,  and  would  have 
done  so  without  the  element  of  Christianity,  of 

103 


Missions  and  Politics 

Christian  understanding,  and  of  confidence,  to  rob 
it  of  its  great  dangers. 

About  1 8 13,  the  change  came  by  which  the 
old  idea  that  only  trade  was  legitimate' was  aban- 
doned. It  had  been  deemed  lawful  to  murder, 
bribe,  steal,  corrupt  and  wage  war  for  the  sake 
of  trade,  but  to  use  the  advantages  so  gained  for 
the  sake  of  teaching  the  people,  giving  them  the 
ideas  and  life  of  the  West,  was  supposed  to  in- 
volve a  breach  of  some  sort  of  tacit  contract  with 
the  natives,  by  which,  if  they  would  be  good, 
and  be  ruled  and  buy  British  articles,  the  British 
would  let  them  worship  idols  and  kill  their  chil- 
dren and  burn  their  widows,  and  otherwise  be 
as  heathen  as  they  might  wish.  When,  how- 
ever, the  Company's  charter  was  renewed  in 
1 8 13,  it  was  directed  to  appropriate  a  sum  for 
education  and  the  introduction  of  useful  sciences. 

The  question  at  once  arose,  however,  as  to 

whether  such  education  and  sciences  were  to  be 

given  according  to  Oriental  ideas  by  the  rulers  as 

in  sort  the  trustees  of  the  heathenism  of  the  land, 

or  according  to  Western  ideas  and  the  spirit  of 

civilization.     Macaulay  was  in  India  when  this 

question  was  decided,  and  he  wrote  the  minute 

that  was  adopted.     The  decision  was  in  favor  of 

an  education  toward  civilization.  That  was  right. 
104 


Southern   Asia 

Under  the  powerful  support  of  Duff,  it  was  also 
in  favor  of  the  making  of  English  the  base  of  the 
education.  Which  was  wrong  and  absurd,  as 
the  British  Government  saw  when  Sir  Charles 
Wood  sent  his  dispatch  of  1854  which  gave  the 
vernacular  some  just  recognition.  Since  then, 
the  British  Government  has  discharged  with  tre- 
mendous energy  the  work  of  introducing  West- 
ern notions  of  the  universe,  Western  science  and 
learning.  But  all  this  work  has  been  directed 
rather  at  instruction,  improvement,  than  at  mould- 
ing of  character;  and  it  has  led  hundreds  away 
from  humble  trades  to  seek  government  appoint- 
ment or  the  status  of  petty  gentlemen.  As  Sir 
Monier  Williams  said,  ''We  teach  a  native  to 
believe  in  himself.  We  deprecate  his  not  desir- 
ing to  be  better  than  his  fathers.  .  .  .  We 
puff  him  up  with  an  overweening  opinion  of  his 
own  sufficiency.  We  inflate  him  with  a  sublime 
sense  of  his  own  importance  as  a  distinct  unit  in 
the  body  politic.  We  reveal  to  him  the  meaning 
of  'I  am,'  'I  can,'  'I  will,'  'I  shall,'  'I  know,' 
without  inculcating  any  lesson  of  'T  ought'  and 
*  I  ought  not,'  without  implanting  any  sense  of  re- 
sponsibility to  and  dependence  on  an  Eternal,  Al- 
mighty and  All-wise  Being  for  life,  for  strength, 
for  knowledge — without  in  short,  imparting  real 

106 


Missions  and  Politics 

self-knowledge,  or  teaching  true  self-mastery,  or 
instilling  high  principles  and  high  motives.  Such 
a  system  carries  with  it  its  own  nemesis.'"  ^ 

On  the  fundamental  weakness  here,  Sir  Her- 
bert Edwardes,  one  of  the  finest  administrators 
ever  in  India,  laid  his  hand  thirty  years  ago, 
''That  secular  education  and  civilization  will 
ever  regenerate  a  nation  I  do  not  believe.  It 
does  not  go  to  the  root  of  the  matter.  It  is  a 
police  force  at  best.  It  does  much  to  suppress 
crime  between  man  and  man,  but  it  does  nothing 
for  sin  between  man  and  his  Maker.  Undoubt- 
edly it  softens  what  is  brutal  in  human  nature, 
but  it  leaves  untouched  what  is  Satanic.  It  was 
well  said  by  one  of  the  ablest  missionaries  in 
India,  that  '  He  alone  can  make  a  new  nation 
who  can  form  a  new  man.'  "  "^ 

That  is  what  England  has  been  doing  in  India 
— forming  a  new  nation  on  the  structure  and 
with  the  power  of  national  unity,  but  without 
real  life  or  the  sense  of  Divine  duty.  It  has  been 
a  perilous  procedure.  "I  believe,"  said  Lord 
Lawrence,  "that  what  more  tended  to  stir  up 
the  Indian  Mutiny  than  any  one  thing  was,  the 
habitual   cowardice   of  Great   Britain   as  to  her 

'  Monier  Williams'  Modern  India,  p.  304. 
'Young's  Success  of  Christian  Missions,  pp.  73,  74. 

106 


Southern   Asia 

own  religion.  It  led  many  to  think  her  athe- 
istical and  so  not  to  be  trusted;  and  others  to 
believe  that  under  a  veil  of  indifference  she  hid 
some  deep  scheme  to  make  India  Christian." 

Of  course  the  position  taken  has  been  that 
England  could  not  teach  Christianity;  she  had  no 
right,  and  to  do  it  would  have  confounded  spirit- 
ual with  secular  and  worldly  motives.  But  she 
has  never  scrupled  to  teach  against  Christianity 
in  her  schools,  and  atheism  and  agnosticism  have 
been  openly  taught.  Lord  Lawrence  held  other 
views.  "In  doing  the  best  we  can  for  the  peo- 
ple," he  said,  in  1858,  in  his  dispatches  as  Chief 
Commissioner  of  the  Punjab,  ''we  are  bound  by 
our  conscience  and  not  by  theirs.  ...  To 
say  that  we  have  no  right  to  offer  Christian  teach- 
ing to  government  schools  because  we  do  not  al- 
low the  native  religions  to  be  taught  there,  is  to 
misapprehend  the  fundamental  relation  that  in 
this  country  subsists  between  the  Government 
and  the  people.  We  are  to  do  the  best  we  can 
for  them,  according  to  our  lights  and  they  are  to 
obey  us."  ^  Lawrence's  views  did  not  prevail  be- 
cause there  were  few  Lawrences.  And  Great 
Britain  has  gone  on  unifying  India  and  making  it 
dangerous,  filling  it  with  trained  and  inflammable 

•Young's  Success  of  Christian  Missions,  pp.  80-82. 

107 


Missions  and  Politics 

men  devoid  of  moral  foundations,  but  not  supply- 
ing tlie  one  force  that  would  make  these  things 
blessings  and  not  a  curse. 

Not  to  press  this  further,  I  may  only  quote  the 
corroborating  judgment  of  one  of  the  latest 
travellers,  Mr.  Julian  Hawthorne.  ''The  only 
salvation  of  India  even  from  an  economic  point  of 
view,  in  the  opinion  of  those  who  have  longest 
and  most  deeply  studied  it  is  its  Christianiza- 
tion.  .  .  .  Let  England  inspire  India  with  a 
veritable  Christian  faith,  and  nine-tenths  of  the 
present  difficulties  would  spontaneously  cease. 
But  in  order  to  inspire  such  faith,  we  must  first 
possess  it;  and  England,  conscientious,  energetic, 
just  and  proud  of  her  religious  history,  is  not  a 
Christian  nation,  and  therefore  forfeits  the  meas- 
ureless power  for  good  which  might  otherwise 
be  hers." 

5.  And  now,  fifthly,  that  which  the  British 
Government  in  India  has  not  done,  which  in- 
deed it  at  the  first  malignantly  opposed,  has  al- 
ways professedly  treated  with  neutrality,  and  in 
its  educational  system  has  antagonized  and 
counteracted,  and  which  yet  was  the  only  hope 
and  salvation  of  the  British  Power  itself  in  India, 
the  missionary   work   has  been   doing.     It  has 

been  supplying  the  force  that  would  rob  national 
108 


Southern   Asia 

unity  of  its  peril,  and  make  of  India  not  the  irri- 
table, mutinous  foe  but  the  hearty,  sound-souled 
ally  of  the  British  Empire.  There  have  been 
English  statesmen  who  saw  this.  Viscount  Hali- 
fax, Secretary  of  State  for  India,  declared  forty- 
three  years  ago,  "  No  person  can  be  more  anxious 
to  promote  the  spread  of  Christianity  in  India 
than  we  are.  Independently  of  Christian  con- 
siderations, I  believe  that  every  additional  Chris- 
tian in  India  is  an  additional  bond  of  union  with 
this  country,  and  an  additional  source  of  strength 
to  the  Empire."  ''It  is  our  interest,"  said  Pal- 
merston,  then  Prime  Minister,  '*to  promote  the 
diffusion  of  Christianity  as  far  as  possible 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  India."  ^ 
These  were  politicians'  views.  The  matter  was 
more  broadly  treated  nearly  a  generation  ago  by 
one  of  the  keenest  students  of  this  great  problem, 
who  then  said,  *'Is  it  conceivable  that  some  day 
we  may  find  our  Christianity  a  reconciling  ele- 
ment between  ourselves  and  the  contending  re- 
ligions, (and  the  nationality  movement  growing 
up  in  India) .?  .  .  .  We  are  to  remember  that,  as 
Islam  is  the  crudest  expression  of  Semitic  religion, 
Brahmanism  on  the  other  hand  is  an  expression  of 
Aryan  thought.    Now  among  the  religions  of  the 

*  Young's  Success  of  Christian  Missions,  p.  88. 

109 


Missions  and  Politics 

world  Christianity  stands  out  as  a  product  of  the 
fusion  of  Semitic  with  Aryan  ideas.  It  may  be 
said  that  India  and  Europe  in  respect  of  religion 
have  both  the  same  elements,  but  that  in  India 
the  elements  have  not  blended,  while  in  England 
they  have  resulted  in  Christianity.  Judaism  and 
classical  Paganism  were  in  Europe  at  the  begin- 
ning of  our  era  what  Mohammedanism  and  Brah- 
manism  are  now  in  India;  but  in  India  the  ele- 
ments have  remained  separate  and  have  made 
only  occasional  efforts  to  unite,  as  in  the  Sikh  re- 
ligion and  in  the  religion  of  Akber.  In  Europe  a 
great  fusion  took  place  by  means  of  the  Christian 
Church,  which  fusion  has  throughout  modern 
history  been  growing  more  and  more  complete."  * 
Will  Christianity  once  more  work  a  great  absorp- 
tion and  regeneration  of  this  character  for  the  re- 
demption and  cleansing  of  India,  and  so  save  it 
though  unified  and  nationalized  ? 

Great  as  these  charges  laid  on  Christianity  are, 
the  Mission  work  which  has  been  its  deposit  and 
factor,  has  been  magnificently  bearing  them. 
Even  the  report  to  Parliament  of  a  Secretary  of 
State  for  India,  (1872-1873),  has  recognized  this, 
and  declared,  Its  institutions  "augur  well  for  the 
future  moral  progress  of  the  native  population  of 

*Seeley's  Expansion  of  England,  p.  323. 

110 


Southern    Asia 

India,  from  these  signs  of  solid  advance  already 
exhibited  on  every  hand,  and  gained  within  the 
brief  period  of  two  generations.  This  view  of 
the  general  influence  of  their  teaching,  and  of 
the  greatness  of  the  revolution  which  it  is  silently 
producing,  is  not  taken  by  missionaries  only.  It 
has  been  accepted  by  many  distinguished  officers 
of  the  Government,  and  has  been  emphatically  en- 
dorsed by  the  high  authority  of  Sir  Bartle  Frere. 
Without  pronouncing  an  opinion  on  the  matter, 
the  Government  of  India  cannot  but  acknowledge 
the  great  obligations  under  which  it  is  laid  by  the 
benevolent  exertions  made  by  the  (600)  mission- 
aries, whose  blameless  examples  and  self-deny- 
ing exertions,  are  infusing  new  vigor  into  the 
stereotyped  life  of  the  great  populations  placed 
under  English  rule,  and  are  preparing  them  to 
be  in  every  way  better  men  and  better  citizens 
of  the  great  Empire  in  which  they  dwell." 

Those  who  have  been  responsible  for  the  Gov- 
ernment of  India  have  not  been  deluded  by  any 
idea  that  Missions  have  failed.  They  know  full 
well  that  they  are  constructing  the  firmest  foun- 
dations on  which  British  influence  in  India  can 
rest,  and  are  reaching  down  to  those  classes  for 
whose  mental  and  moral  improvement  the  Gov- 
ernment has  been  able  to  do  the  least.  They 
111 


Missions  and  Politics 

know  that  they  are  giving  character  to  such  of 
the  higher  educated  classes  as  possess  it,  and  are 
teaching  temperateness,  sound  judgment,  and 
that  just  sense  of  responsibility  which  should 
accompany  the  spirit  of  independence,  to  more 
thousands  than  are  awed  by  the  army  or  subsi- 
dized by  the  gift  of  government  appointment.  If 
out  of  all  the  perils  of  its  great  experiment  in 
India  the  British  Government  should  emerge 
peacefully,  it  will  be  because  Christian  Missions 
have  laid  in  India  the  foundations  of  that  king- 
dom of  righteousness  that  cannot  be  moved; 
while,  as  for  India  herself,  where  formerly 

"  Midnight  hushed  the  world 
Save  where  the  beasts  of  darkness  in  the  brake 
Crept  and  cried  out,  as  fear  and  hatred  cry, 
As  vice  and  avarice  and  anger  creep 
In  the  black  jungle  of  man's  ignorance," 

the  same  Missions  are  bringing  the  hour  when 

"  High  as  the  herald  star  which  fades  in  floods 
Of  silver,  warming  into  pale  gold,  caught 
By  topmost  clouds,  and  flowing  on  their  rims 
To  fervent  glow,  flushed  from  the  brink 
With  saffron,  scarlet,  crimson,  amethyst ; 
Whereat  the  sky  burns  splendid  to  the  blue, 
And,  robed  in  raiment  of  glad  light,  the  King 
Of  light  and  glory  cometh."  * 

Indo-China 
I  have  left  myself  scant  space  in  which  to 
speak  of  Indo-China,  the  third  of  the  protruding 

*  Arnold's  Light  of  Asia. 

112 


Southern   Asia 

peninsulas   of  South   Asia,  but  Indo-China  has 

no  separate  destiny.     Slowly  from  Sir  Stamford 

Raffles'  settlement  at  Singapore  and  from  Assam, 

the  British  influence  stole  Eastward;  while  from 

Tonquin  and  Cambodia  the  French  have  crept 

Westward.     The  old  fiction  of  the  necessity  of 

a  buffer  state,  indeed  of  all  buffer  states,  has 

been  gradually  disappearing,  as  no  states  but  the 

buffer  states  have  been  left  to  be  seized;  and 

Siam   crushed  between  England  and  France  is 

being  slowly  absorbed.     It  is  only  a  question  of 

time  now  until  the  boundary  lines  of  French  and 

British  territory   shall   meet,  and  the  mountain 

range  which  runs  as  a  spine  through  the  centre 

of  Siam,  constitute  their  line  of  division.     All 

West  of  the  line  will  share  the  destiny  of  the 

India  Empire,  and  all  East  will  pass  under  the 

curious    colonial    system    of    France; — curious 

because    it    is    so   difficult  to  understand  why 

God    allows    such    a    poor    travesty   upon  His 

earth. 

In  the  matter  of  virility  and  fanatical  conviction 

Siam  is  at  the  opposite  pole  from  Arabia.     It  has 

an  enlightened  king,    most  kindly  disposed  to 

missionary  influence,    and   wholly   favorable  to 

civilization;  but  the  people  are  without  power, 

aspiration  or  vital  force.     Centuries  of  Buddhism 
113 


Missions  and  Politics 

have  emasculated  them.  When  all  that  is  claimed 
for  primitive  Buddhism  is  granted,  its  proclama- 
tion of  peace  and  good-will  and  brotherhood,  its 
avowed  sympathy  with  social  liberty  and  free- 
dom, its  teaching  of  self-denial  without  torture, 
its  inculcation  of  charity,  generosity,  broadness, 
tolerance  and  love,  its  advocacy  of  respect  for 
life  and  compassion  toward  all  creatures,  it  yet 
remains  true  that  it  has  left  the  nations  it  touched 
as  weak  as  it  found  them,  if  it  has  not  weakened 
them  yet  more,  has  held  no  stimulating  tonic  of 
purity  and  progress  for  its  followers,  has  never 
produced  any  great  literature  or  art,  has  been  as- 
sociated with  no  great  historic  movements,  has 
developed  the  most  ignorant  priesthood,  the  most 
mechanical  worship,  and  the  most  prolific  and 
absurd  idolatry,  has  shown  itself  in  reality  athe- 
istic and  barren  of  all  authority  and  dominion. 
"\  have  neither  the  time  nor  the  inclination  to 
describe  to  you  the  hideousness  that  came  in 
its  wake,"  said  Swami  Vivakananda  recently  in 
Madras,  "the  most  hideous  ceremonies,  the  most 
horrible,  the  most  obscene  books  that  human 
hand  ever  wrote  or  the  human  brain  ever  con- 
ceived, the  most  bestial  forms  that  ever  passed 
under  the  name  of  religion  have  all  been  the 
creation  of  degraded  Buddhism."    I  am  not  sure 

114 


Southern   Asia 

that  Buddhism  deserves  this  palm  over  Hindu- 
ism, but  it  may  be. 

In  the  midst  of  this  enervating  jungle,  the 
clean,  vitalizing  work  of  the  Gospel  stands  out 
wholesomely.  It  has  but  begun,  but  its  power 
for  the  final  good  is  as  a  flood  compared  with  all 
other.  As  a  Bengal  Civil  Service  official  wrote 
of  the  Karens,  "Nothing  that  the  Government 
has  yet  done  has  succeeded  in  rousing  the  peo- 
ple to  a  sense  of  their  dignity  as  men  or  as  a  na- 
tion. The  Government  has  given  them  nothing 
around  which  their  national  aspirations  could 
rally.  Christianity  at  the  hands  of  the  American 
missionaries  has  done  this.  Once  a  village  has 
embraced  Christianity,  it  feels  itself  head  and 
shoulders  above  its  neighbors,  and  all  the  ener- 
gies of  the  people  are  employed  in  making  this 
village  worthy  of  the  name.  No  labor,  no  ex- 
pense are  spared.  The  Christian  village  must  be 
clean,  healthy,  neat;  it  must  have  the  best  school 
and  the  best  church  they  can  afford.  They  will 
not  have  anything  but  the  best."^ 

And  this  is  the  drift  everywhere.  God  has 
caught  these  Nations  in  the  sweep  of  a  mighty  his- 
tory. He  is  making  it  fast  under  our  eyes  and 
the  great  force  which  He  is  using,  greater  I  be- 

Young's  Success  of  Christian  Missions,  p.  127 

115 


Missions  and  Politics 

lieve,  than  those  political  forces  which  He  is  as 
surely  also  guiding,  is  the  Christian  Church,  with 
its  power  of  transformation,  of  life,  as  fresh  and 
vigorous  as  when  it  poured  new  from  the  bleed- 
ing Lamb  on  Calvary.     Even  now, 

"The  hands  upon  that  cruel  tree 
Extended  wide  as  mercy's  span 
Are  gathering  to  the  Son  of  Man, 
The  ages  past  and  yet  to  be. ' ' 

All  the  other  forces  at  work  are  puny  com- 
pared with  His.  Can  Buddhism  compare  ?  Who 
holds  it  only  or  consistently?  Not  one.  *'Not 
one,"  says  Rhys  Davids,  '*  of  the  500,000,000  who 
offer  flowers  now  and  then  on  Buddhist  shrines, 
who  are  more  or  less  molded  by  Buddhist  teach- 
ing, is  only  or  altogether  a  Buddhist."^  Can 
Hinduism  compare.?  "I  must  tell  you  in  plain 
words,"  declared  one  of  its  smoothest  prophets 
recently  to  his  people,  '*we  are  weak,  very 
weak.  .  .  .  We  have  lost  faith.  Would  you 
believe  me,  we  have  less  faith  than  the  English 
men  and  women,  thousand  times  less  faith! 
These  are  plain  words,  but  I  must  say  them. 
.  .  .  Your  blood,  .  .  .  your  brain,  .  .  . 
your  body  is  weak.  You  talk  of  reform,  of 
ideals,  and  all  these  for  the  last  one  hundred 
years;  and  when  it  comes  to  practice,  you  are 

*  Rhys  Davids'  Buddhism,  p.  7. 
116 


Southern   Asia 

not  to  be  found  anywhere;  so  that  you  have 
disgusted  the  whole  world,  and  the  very  name 
of  reform  is  a  thing  of  ridicule  to  the  whole 
world.  The  only  cause  is  that  you  are  weak, 
weak,  weak;  your  body  is  weak,  your  mind  is 
weak!  You  have  no  faith  in  yourselves.  .  .  . 
Our  capitals  are  filled  with  the  most  rotten 
superstitions  in  the  world."  Can  government 
compare.?  ''The  white  invasion,"  wrote  Julian 
Hawthorne, ''  has  done  India  good  just  in  measure 
as  it  has  been  accompanied  by  genuine  religious 
influence.  So  far  as  it  has  been  commercial  and 
indifferent  merely,  it  has  done  harm.  England 
has  unselfishly  done  for  India  more,  I  think,  than 
any  other  nation  would  do,  but  she  had  failed  to 
give  her  an  upward  impulse." 

"  The  Lord  of  all  creatures,  .  .  .  the  King 
of  the  day  of  judgment  ...  the  most  high, 
who  hath  created  and  completely  formed  His 
creatures  and  who  determineth  them  to  various 
ends  and  directeth  them  to  attain  the  same,"  is 
using  all  of  these  forces,  but  His  force  is  mightier 
than  these.     Beside  it,  they 

"  Stand  on  as  feeble  feet 
As  frailty  doth  and  only  great  do  seem 
To  little  minds  that  do  them  so  esteem." 

Beside  them,  it  stands  calm,  unobtrusive,  but  do- 
in 


Missions  and  Politics 

ing  its  work  with  a  solidity,  a  penetration,  an 
energy  which  prove  it  to  be  to-day,  as  of  old,  the 
power  of  God  unto  the  redemption  of  a  world. 
And  over  the  strife  and  storm  and  clangor  of  the 
fearful  struggle  that  is  shaking  these  lands,  whoso 
has  ears  to  hear  can  catch  its  voice,  clear  and 
commanding  as  the  voice  of  its  Master  amid  the 
waves  on  Gennesaret. 


118 


LECTURE  III 

China 


119 


"  States  /  "  /  said;  "  whyy  what  simplicity  is  this,  that  you 
should  tise  the  term  *  State '  0/  any  but  our  own  State  !  Other 
States  may  indeed  be  spoken  of  more  grandiloquently  in  the 
plural  number,  for  they  are  many  in  one — a  game  of  cities  at 
which  men  play .     ...     " 

"  .  .  .  .  Beginning  with  the  assumption  that  our  State 
if  rightly  ordered  is  perfect y 

"  That  is  most  certain^ 

«'  And  being  perfect,  our  State  is  wise  and  valiant  and  tem- 
perate and  just. ^^ 

«  That  is  also  clear." 

Plato,  The  Republic. 


120 


LECTURE  III 

CHINA 

"There  are  men  of  that  tyrannical  school  who 
say  that  China  is  not  fit  to  sit  at  the  council 
board  of  the  Nations,  who  call  them  barbarians, 
who  attack  them  on  all  occasions  with  a  bitter 
and  unrelenting  spirit,"  said  Anson  Burlingame  in 
New  York,  on  June  2},  1868,  when  he  was  rep- 
resenting the  Chinese  Government  as  head  of  the 
Embassy  which  introduced  China  to  the  Western 
world  when  at  last  the  long  closed  doors  were 
forced  open.  And  ** these  things,"  continued 
Burlingame,  *'I  utterly  deny.  I  say  on  the  con- 
trary, that  that  is  a  great  and  noble  people.  It 
has  all  the  elements  of  a  splendid  nationality.  It 
has  the  most  numerous  people  on  the  face  of  the 
globe;  it  is  the  most  homogeneous  people  in  the 
world;  its  language  is  spoken  by  more  human 
beings  than  any  other  in  the  world,  and  it  is 
written  in  the  rock;  it  is  a  country  where  there  is 
a  greater  unification  of  thought  than  in  any  other 
country  in  the  world ;  it  is  a  country  where  the 

maxims  of  the  great  sages,  coming  down  memo- 
121 


Missions  and  Politics 

rized,  have  permeated  the  whole  people  until  their 
knowledge  is  rather  an  instinct  than  an  acquire- 
ment. It  is  a  people  loyal  while  living,  and 
whose  last  prayer  when  dying  is  to  sleep  in  the 
sacred  soil  of  their  fathers.  It  is  a  land  of  scholars 
and  of  schools — a  land  of  books,  from  the  small- 
est pamphlet  up  to  voluminous  encyclopedias. 
It  is  a  land,  sir,  as  you  have  said,  where  the 
privileges  are  common ;  it  is  a  land  without  caste 
for  they  destroyed  their  feudal  system  two  thou- 
sand one  hundred  years  ago,  and  they  built  up 
their  great  structure  of  civilization  on  the  great 
idea  that  the  people  are  the  source  of  power. 
That  idea  was  uttered  by  Mencius  two  thousand 
years  ago,  and  it  was  old  when  he  uttered  it. 
The  power  flows  forth  from  that  people  into 
practical  government  through  the  cooperative 
system,  and  they  make  scholarship  a  test  of 
merit.  I  say  it  is  a  great,  a  polite,  a  patient,  a 
sober  and  an  industrious  people;  and  it  is  such  a 
people  as  this,  that  the  bitter  boor  would  exclude 
from  the  council  hall  of  the  Nations.  It  is  such  a 
Nation  as  this  that  the  tyrannical  element  would 
put  under  the  ban.  They  say  that  all  these  people 
(a  third  [!]  of  the  human  race)  must  become  the 
weak  wards  of  the  West;  wards  of  Nations  not 
so  populous  as  many  of  their  provinces;  wards 

122 


China 

of  people  who  are  younger  than  their  newest  vil- 
lage in  Manchuria.  1  do  not  mean  to  say  that  the 
Chinese  are  perfect;  far  from  it.  They  have  their 
faults,  their  pride  and  their  prejudices  like  other 
people.  These  are  profound  and  they  must  be 
overcome.  They  have  their  conceits  like  other 
people,  and  they  must  be  done  away;  but  they 
are  not  to  be  removed  by  talking  to  them  with 
cannon,  by  telling  them  that  they  are  feeble  and 
weak,  and  that  they  are  barbarians."^ 

With  these  fair  words  from  our  countryman  of 
florid  speech,  the  most  impressive  and  curious 
nation  on  the  earth  was  introduced  to  national  in- 
tercourse with  other  peoples.  She  had  been 
talked  to  with  cannon.  Otherwise  she  would 
have  continued  to  refuse  introduction.  But  the 
persuasive  iron  speech  of  the  Opium  and  Arrow 
Wars  was  seductive  and  the  mighty  people  came 
out  of  their  seclusion. 

1  have  called  China  impressive,  curious  and 
mighty.  These  three  adjectives  belong  to  China 
and  they  belong  in  the  same  degree  to  no  other 
people. 

The  Chinese  people  are  a  mighty  people.  The 
idea  that  they  were  mighty  in  war  was  finally 
abandoned  three  years  ago,  but  until  the  army 

*  Nevius's  China  and  the  Chinese,  p.  453. 
123 


Missions  and  Politics 

and  navy  of  Japan  showed  how  hollow  and  vain 
were  all  the  Chinese  military  and  naval  preten- 
sions, China  was  reckoned  a  sleeping  giant  who 
had  been  not  inactively  preparing  even  in  sleep 
for  future  struggle.  Had  not  Chinese  armies 
conquered  the  whole  heart  of  Asia  ?  Had  they 
not  driven  Russia  out  of  the  region  South  of  the 
Amoor?  Had  they  not  held  the  dependencies 
against  all  foes  ?  Had  they  not  made  the  French 
war  in  Tonquin  a  scandal  and  almost  a  shame  to 
France?  No  testing  had  ever  come.  What 
China  was  or  could  do  was  enfolded  in  mystery. 
It  is  not  strange  that  Great  Britain  looked  upon 
her  as  her  best  ally  against  Russian  aggression, 
and  that  all  the  politics  of  the  East  turned  upon 
the  conviction  of  China's  formidable  character  as 
a  warlike  nation.  All  this  is  past  now,  and  the 
Western  people  smile  at  their  folly  in  having  been 
so  deceived,  and  sneer  at  the  pathetic  weakness 
of  the  Celestial  Giant.  But  this  is  after  the  nar- 
row judgment  of  men  whose  gods  are  made  of 
saber  slashes  and  running  blood.  China's  unfit- 
ness for  the  modern  science  of  butchery  which 
we  call  war,  and  her  weakness  in  such  work, 
while  manifesting  the  radical  defects  of  incapacity 
for  organization  and  exact  obedience,  but  bring 

into  clearer  relief  her  mighty  adaptation  to  the 
124 


China 

arts  of  peace,  and  her  genuine  power  in  those 
spheres  which  I  confess  seem  to  me  better  spheres 
for  the  exercise  of  power  than  the  fields  of  organ- 
ized murder  or  national  land  robbery  or  the  lust 
of  pride. 

In  the  more  worthy  regards  China  is  a  mighty 
nation.  No  people  are  more  frugal,  more  con- 
tented, more  orderly,  more  patient,  more  industri- 
ous, more  filial  and  respectful  among  themselves. 
''They  have  been  for  ages  the  great  centre  of  light 
and  civilization  in  Central  and  Eastern  Asia.  They 
have  given  literature  and  religion  to  the  millions 
of  Korea  and  Japan."  Even  a  generation  of 
Western  civilization  has  not  shaken  Chinese  in- 
fluence off  the  thought  and  politics  and  ethics 
of  Japan.  Printing  originated  with  the  Chinese, 
and  was  used  by  them  hundreds  of  years  before 
it  was  known  in  the  West.  The  magnetic  needle, 
gunpowder,  silk  fabrics,  chinaware  and  porcelain 
were  old  tales  with  the  Chinese  before  our  civi- 
lization began.  Our  latest  ideas  were  wrought 
out  by  the  Chinese  ages  ago, — Civil  Service  exami- 
nations and  assignment  of  office  for  merit  and 
tested  capacity,  trades  unions  and  organizations, 
the  sense  of  local  responsibility  in  municipal  ad- 
ministration. Already  numbering  one-fourth  the 
population  of  the  earth,  China  ought  to  be  able, 

125 


Missions  and  Politics 

Dr.  Faber  says,^  "comfortably  to  support  at  least 
five  times  the  number  of  its  present  inhabitants," 
taking  Germany  as  a  basis  of  judgment,  for  the 
average  population  of  Germany  is  three  times 
denser  than  the  average  population  of  China,  and 
China's  physical  and  climatic  conditions  are  more 
favorable  than  those  of  Germany,  while  the 
Chinese  are  more  frugal  than  the  Germans.  In 
business,  manufactures  or  trade  no  other  people 
can  compete  with  the  Chinese  on  equal  terms. 
Wherever  equal  terms  prevail,  they  are  driving 
the  foreign  merchants  out  of  their  markets  and 
ports,  and  make  other  labor  impossible.  And 
when,  as  is  sure  to  happen,  their  own  or  foreign 
capitalists  drawing  raw  materials  from  China, 
manufacture  their  cottons,  iron,  silk,  woolens  and 
merchandise  in  Chinese  mills  with  Chinese  labor, 
those  who  now  regard  these  Chinese  as  weak  be- 
cause they  cannot  fight  with  guns  and  ships  will 
recognize  that  there  are  other  standards  than  these 
by  which  the  power  of  a  people  is  to  be  gauged. 
Perhaps  one  reason  why  the  Chinese  have  been 
so  underjudged  and  certainly  one  reason  for  the 
attitude  of  contempt  and  ridicule  civilized  nations 
have  ever  taken  toward  them  is  found  in  their 
curious  peculiarities ;  for  they  are,  as  has  been  said, 

'  Faber 's  China  in  the  Light  of  History,  p.  2. 

126 


Ch 


ma 


the  most  curious  of  peoples.  But  another  reason 
is  found  in  our  misunderstanding  of  them.  As 
Dr.  Martin  once  said,  ''They  are  denounced  as 
stolid,  because  we  are  not  in  possession  of  a  me- 
dium sufficiently  transparent  to  convey  our  ideas 
to  them  or  to  transmit  theirs  to  us;  and  stigma- 
tized as  barbarians,  because  we  want  the  breadth 
to  comprehend  a  civilization  different  from  our 
own.  They  are  represented  as  servile  imitators, 
though  they  have  borrowed  less  than  any  other 
people;  as  destitute  of  the  inventive  faculty, 
though  the  world  is  indebted  to  them  for  a  long 
catalogue  of  the  most  useful  discoveries ;  and  as 
clinging  with  unquestioning  tenacity  to  a  heritage 
of  traditions,  though  they  have  passed  through 
many  and  profound  changes  in  the  course  of 
their  history."^  And  we  have  misunderstood  the 
Chinese  in  this  way  not  because  of  any  want  of 
will  to  understand  them,  but  because  from  our 
point  of  view  the  Chinese  character  and  mind  are 
so  perplexing,  almost  inexplicable.  Some  have 
even  denied  in  their  confusion  that  there  is  a  com- 
mon character  or  mind.  Mr.  Henry  Norman  in 
Peoples  and  Politics  of  the  Far  East,  has  done  so, 
contending  that  there  is  no  real  unity  in  China; 
but  those  who  know  China  better,  hold  a  differ- 

*  Martin's  The  Chinese,  p.  228. 

127 


Missions  and  Politics 

ent  view.  "  China  is  not,"  one  of  them  declares, 
**an  immense  congeries  of  polyps  each  encased 
in  his  narrow  cell,  a  workshop  and  a  tomb,  and 
all  toiling  on  without  the  stimulus  of  common 
sympathy  or  mental  reaction.  China  is  not 
.  .  .  like  British  India,  an  assemblage  of  tribes 
with  little  or  no  community  of  feeling.  It  is  a 
unit,  and  through  all  its  members  there  sweeps 
the  mighty  tide  of  a  common  life."  ^ 

And  yet  no  one  has  ever  described  this  life. 
Those  who  have  come  nearest  to  doing  so  have 
confessed  their  failure.  They  have  hit  off  char- 
acteristics but  not  the  character.  Mr.  Smith 
frankly  calls  his  book  which  is  the  best  ac- 
count of  Chinese  character  we  have  Chinese 
Characteristics,  and  one  of  the  fairest  as  well 
as  shrewdest  writers  on  China,  Mr.  George 
Wingrove  Cooke,  the  special  correspondent  of 
the  London  Times,  with  Lord  Elgin's  Mission, 
doubted  whether  the  Chinese  could  be  under- 
stood and  described  by  the  Western  mind.  "I 
have  in  these  letters,"  he  wrote,  ''introduced  no 
elaborate  essay  upon  Chinese  character.  It  is  a 
great  omission.  .  .  .  The  truth  is  that,  I  have 
written  several  very  fine  characters  for  the  whole 
Chinese  race,  but  having  the  misfortune  to  have 

*  Martin's  The  Chinese,  p.  229. 

128 


China 

the  people  under  my  eye  at  the  same  time  with 
my  essay,  they  were  always  saying  something  or 
doing  something  which  rubbed  so  rudely  against 
my  hypothesis,  that  in  the  interest  of  truth  I 
burned  several  successive  letters.  I  may  add 
that  I  have  often  talked  over  this  matter  with 
the  most  eminent  and  candid  sinologues,  and 
have  always  found  them  ready  to  agree  with  me 
as  to  the  impossibility  of  a  Western  mind  form- 
ing a  conception  of  Chinese  character  as  a  whole. 
These  difficulties,  however,  occur  only  to  those 
who  know  the  Chinese  practically;  a  smart 
writer  entirely  ignorant  of  his  subject  might 
readily  strike  off  a  brilliant  and  antithetical  an- 
alysis, which  should  leave  nothing  to  be  desired 
but  truth."  ^ 

Who  of  us,  for  example,  can  honestly  appre- 
ciate or  understand  the  point  of  view  of  a  people 
among  whom  human  life  is  regarded  as  these 
illustrations  show  ?  A  man  throws  himself  into 
a  canal  and  is  dragged  out.  But  not  to  be  frus- 
trated in  this  way,  simply  sits  down  on  the  bank 
and  starves  himself  to  death  to  be  revenged 
against  somebody  who  has  cheated  him  and 
whose  good  name  will  be  tarnished  in  this  way. 
One  day,  as  a  Chinese  paper  relates,  a  sow  be- 

•  Cooke 'i  China^  p.  7. 

129 


Missions  and  Politics 

longing  to  a  Mrs.  Feng,  happening  to  knock 
down  and  slightly  injure  the  front  door  of  a 
Mrs.  Wang,  the  latter  at  once  proceeded  to 
claim  damages,  which  were  refused.  Where- 
upon a  fierce  altercation  ensued,  which  termi- 
nated in  Mrs.  Wang's  threatening  to  take  her 
own  life.  Mrs.  Feng,  upon  hearing  of  this  dire- 
ful threat,  resolved  at  once  to  steal  a  march  upon 
her  enemy  by  taking  her  own  life,  and  so  bring- 
ing trouble  and  discredit  upon  Mrs.  Wang.  She 
accordingly  threw  herself  into  the  canal.  And 
these  are  not  uncommon  or  forced  illustrations. 
They  are  part  of  the  common  routine  of  life.^ 

And  the  occasional  cruelty  of  the  Chinese  is 
beyond  belief.  "I  know  of  a  case  in  a  wealthy 
Mandarin's  family,"  writes  one  old  missionary, 
"  where  the  only  grown  daughter  showing  signs 
of  leprosy,  a  slave  girl  was  bought  and  butch- 
ered, and  the  patient  fed  with  the  flesh  of  the 
poor  victim."*  How  is  this  to  be  understood 
among  a  people  of  high  moral  standards,  and 
ancient  and  boasted  civilization  ? 

And  their  government  contains  equally  curious 
features;  men  appointed  to  expensive  office  with- 
out salary  and  then  punished  for  squeezing;  lofty 


*  Norman's  Peoples  and  Politics  of  the  Far  East,  p.  278. 

^  Faber's  Famous  Women  of  China,  p.  4. 

130 


China 

political  ethics  combined  with  the  most  corrupt 
official  class  in  the  world ;  vast  numbers  of  eu- 
nuchs, 3,000  in  the  palace  of  the  Emperor  alone, 
under  a  system  which  proclaims  the  sonless  man 
to  be  an  outcast  soul,  doomed  eternally ;  a  pro- 
fessed atheism,  or  at  best  agnosticism  combined 
with  the  most  silly  superstitions.  This,  for  ex- 
ample, is  one  of  the  decrees  for  the  year  1896, 
taken  from  the  Imperial  Gaiette,  *' A  shroud  in- 
scribed with  the  T'olo  prayers,  the  work  of  the 
Tibetan  Buddhist  Pontiff,  is  granted  to  the  de- 
ceased noble  Tsai  Tsin."  This  is  another  of  less 
recent  date:  '' Tso  Tsung  fang  refers  for  favor- 
able consideration  an  application  made  to  him 
that  a  certain  girl  who  died  in  1469  may  be  can- 
onized. Wherever  rain  has  failed,  prayers  of- 
fered up  at  the  shrine  of  the  girl  angel  at  Pa-mi- 
shan  have  usually  been  successful.  An  inquiry 
into  the  earthly  history  of  the  girl  angel  shows 
that  she  was  born  in  the  capital  of  Kansuh,  and 
during  her  childhood  lived  an  exemplary  life. 
She  was  guiltless  of  a  smile  or  any  sort  of  levity; 
but,  on  the  contrary,  spent  the  livelong  day  in 
doing  her  duty.  Arrived  at  maidenhood,  her 
mother  wished  to  betroth  her,  but  the  girl  refused 
to  marry,  and  betook  herself  to  the  Pa-mi  hills, 
where  she  gave  herself  up  to  religious  exercise 

131 


Missions  and  Politics 

and  nourished  herself  on  spiritual  food,  until  she 
was  transformed  into  an  angel.  After  she  had 
left  this  world,  the  people  of  the  locality  found 
that  an  appeal  to  her  was  invariably  answered, 
and  a  temple  was  built  in  her  honor.  During  the 
recent  dry  season,  prayers  for  rain  were  always 
granted,  thus  showing  that  though  hundreds  of 
years  have  gone  by,  the  maiden  still  watches  over 
the  locality.  The  memorialist  is  of  opinion  that 
she  may  well  be  included  in  the  calendar,  and 
proposes  that  for  the  future,  sacrifices  may  be 
offered  to  her  every  spring  and  autumn.  Re- 
script :  Let  the  Board  of  Ceremonies  report  upon 
the  matter."^  Other  edicts  provide  for  the  offer 
of  incense  to  certain  gods,  the  selection  of  lucky 
days  for  various  observances,  the  deification  of  a 
certain  maiden,  etc. 

Yet  these  curious  features  must  not  be  so  ex- 
aggerated as  to  make  China  appear  ludicrous. 
The  West  has  erred  in  this.  China's  great  pre- 
tensions, her  theatricalism,  her  hypocrisy  were 
understood  by  all,  and  her  absurdities  have  been 
allowed  to  fill  such  a  place  that  China  has  been 
rather  the  laughing  stock  of  the  nations.  But  the 
Chinese  are  a  profoundly  impressive  people. 
Nowhere  else  in  the  world  has  the  idea  of  social 

*  Faber's  Famous  Women  of  China,  p.  6. 
132 


China 

or  family  responsibility  been  so  developed.  For 
example,  an  idiot  son  murders  his  father,  and  an 
imperial  edict  records  that  the  son  for  such  a 
dreadful  crime  has  been  punished  by  slow  execu- 
tion, and  that  the  whole  village  has  been  destroyed 
as  sharing  in  the  offence;  for  had  its  influence 
been  proper  and  properly  exerted,  no  boy  reared 
in  the  village  would  have  committed  such  a  crime. 
Nowhere  else  in  the  world  has  the  idea  of  filial 
piety  been  so  emphasized  and  honored,  and  it  is 
a  wonderful  sight  to  see  a  whole  vast  Nation  testi- 
fying to  its  real  belief  in  immortality  by  the  annual 
sacrifices  to  the  spirits  of  the  departed.  It  is  true 
that  the  position  of  woman  is  subordinate  and 
menial,  and  that  she  is  valued  most  as  the  possi- 
ble mother  of  sons.     As  the  Book  of  Odes  says: 

"The  bears  and  grisly  bears 
Are  the  auspicious  intimations  of  sons  ; 
The  cobras  and  other  snakes 
Are  the  auspicious  intimations  of  daughters  ; 
Sons  shall  be  born  to  them  : 
They  will  be  put  to  sleep  on  couches  ; 
They  will  be  clothed  in  robes  ; 
They  will  have  sceptres  to  play  with  ; 
Their  cry  will  be  loud. 

They  will  be  hereafter  resplendent  with  knee-covers, 
The  future  kings,  the  princes  of  the  land. 
Daughters  shall  be  born  to  them  ; 
They  will  be  put  to  sleep  on  the  ground  ; 
They  will  be  clothed  with  wrappers ; 
They  will  have  tiles  to  play  with. 
It  will  be  theirs  neither  to  do  wrong  nor  to  do  good. 
Only  about  the  spirits  and  the  food  will  they  have  to  think. 
And  to  cause  no  sorrow  to  their  parents."  * 

•  Faber's  The  Status  of  Women  in  Cbina,  p.  5. 
133 


Missions  and  Politics 

And  yet  marriage  has  been  ever  regarded  by  the 
Chinese  as  a  sacred  institution,  and  has  been  care- 
fully defended;  and  it  may  be  doubted  whether 
in  any  State,  save  the  Jewish,  as  much  has  been 
made  of  the  family,  or  it  has  been  so  truly  the 
foundation  of  the  State,  which  the  Chinese  call  the 
Family  of  the  Nation,  while  ''prefects  and  magis- 
trates are  popularly  styled  parent  officials. "  ^  And 
as  to  this  State  which  has  existed  for  forty  cen- 
turies, and  would  exist  for  forty  more  if  left  to 
its  desired  seclusion,  where  in  all  history  can  any- 
thing more  impressive  be  found  than  it,  or  than 
those  great  statements  of  its  political  science 
which  Confucius  framed:  ''If  government  is 
exercised  by  means  of  virtue,  it  is  made  as  stead- 
fast as  the  North  pole.  Mere  external  govern- 
ment (i.  e.  orders)  is  opposed  to  virtue.  Filial 
piety  and  brotherly  love  are  necessary;  besides 
these  two,  there  are  no  special  rules.  Govern- 
ment consists  altogether  in  regulating,  i.  e.  set- 
ting to  right.  This  is  achieved  when  the  prince 
is  prince,  and  the  minister  is  minister;  when  the 
father  is  father,  and  the  son  is  son.  But  the  prince 
must  desire  what  is  good  and  the  people  will  be 
good;  therefore  capital  punishment  is  not  neces- 
sary.    Princes  ought  to  go  before  the  people. 

*  Von  M5Uendorflf's  Family  Law  of  the  Chinese,  p.  4. 

134 


China 

Then  the  people  follow.  The  necessary  thing  is 
to  have  sufficiency  of  food  for  the  people,  weap- 
ons and  confidence.  If  necessary,  weapons  can 
be  dispensed  with,  then  food,  but  without  mu- 
tual confidence,  especially  of  the  people  toward 
the  superiors,  there  is  no  standing  for  the  State. 
When  those  who  are  near  are  made  glad  then 
those  who  are  far,  come  themselves.  It  should 
be  the  care  of  the  Government  to  call  everything 
by  its  right  name,  so  that  no  wrong  be  secreted 
behind  a  surreptitious  and  hypocritical  name. 
Good  government  depends  chiefly  upon  the  ex- 
cellence of  the  prince,  besides  also  upon  qualified 
officials,  in  the  election  of  whom  the  sovereign 
must  take  an  interest.  If  the  individual  states, 
as  also  the  imperial  domain  are  swayed  in  this 
way,  the  peaceful  order  of  the  whole  Empire  fol- 
lows as  a  matter  of  course,  especially  if  a  virtu- 
ous emperor  be  at  the  head  of  it."  ^ 

Surely  it  is  fitting  to  apply  to  this  great  people 
the  terms  mighty,  curious,  impressive.  How  in 
the  operations  of  Providence  has  such  a  people 
been  produced,  and  for  what  unseen,  divine  pur- 
pose ?  There  are  two  questions  here — the  ques- 
tion of  origin  and  the  question  of  destiny. 

First,  then,  the  Chinese  race  is  what  it  is  to-day 

'  Faber's  Systematical  Digest  of  the  Doctrines  of  Confucius^  pp.  94-98. 

135 


Missions  and  Politics 

because  of  its  isolation  and  its  education.  By  her 
geographical  position  China  has  been  separated 
from  the  whole  world,  as  the  Romans  said  of 
Britain.  The  mountains  of  Tibet  rose  as  an  in- 
surmountable wall  between  China  and  the  great 
wave  of  Western  conquest  which  swept  away 
the  empires  of  Babylon  and  Persia,  and  later 
under  the  Mohammedans  established  itself  for 
seven  centuries  in  India.  On  the  North  and  West 
stretched  vast  wastes  of  desert,  untrodden  and 
impassable,  and  the  unploughed  sea  separated 
the  Empire  from  all  contact  on  the  East.  The 
Chinese  language  seemed  yet  further  to  isolate 
the  Nation  and  to  separate  the  people  intellectu- 
ally from  their  fellow  men;  while  it  also  bound 
those  who  used  it  closer  together.  A  phonetic 
rather  than  a  symbolic  language  would  have  led 
as  in  Europe,  to  the  development  of  different 
languages  in  different  provinces  or  states,  and  so 
would  have  prevented  the  growth  of  a  great 
Chinese  race.  As  it  is,  geographical  isolation 
shut  China  off  from  contact  with  languages  like 
Sanscrit  and  Assyrian  which  would  have  led  to 
modifications,  and  ignorant  of  any  approxima- 
tion to  phonetic  principles,  China  grew  with 
one  written  and  literary  language,  and  in  the 
main,   a  common  spoken  tongue  which  were 

136 


China 

alike    added  bonds  within   and   added  barriers 
against  those  without.^ 

But  isolation  alone  could  not  have  produced 
the  Chinese  people.  It  merely  provided  those 
potential  conditions  in  which  Chinese  education 
could  have  free  and  uninterrupted  play  upon  the 
nation.  As  Wells  Williams  points  out,  "Their 
literary  tendencies  could  never  have  attained  the 
strength  of  an  institution  if  they  had  been  sur- 
rounded by  more  intelligent  nations;  nor  would 
they  have  filled  the  land  to  such  a  degree  if  they 
had  been  forced  to  constantly  defend  themselves 
or  had  imbibed  the  lust  of  conquest.  Either  of 
these  conditions  would  probably  have  brought 
their  own  national  life  to  a  premature  close." 
In  these  literary  tendencies  the  moral  and  social 
teachings  of  their  great  sages  and  rulers,  their 
systems  of  education,  the  real  kinetic  energy 
which  has  fashioned  and  preserved  the  Chinese 
people  is  to  be  found.  In  the  Classics  compiled 
by  Confucius  all  wisdom  is  contained,  according 
to  Chinese  opinion,  and  the  mastery  of  these 
Classics,  memorizing  them  and  learning  to  use 
their  materials  according  to  artificial  and  fine 
drawn  rules,  is  preparation  for  life,  training  for 
public  office  and  title  to  honor  and  glory.     All 

•Wells  Williams'  Middle  Kingdom^  Vol.  ii.,  pp.  188-190. 

137 


Missions  and  Politics 

preferment  is  based  on  success  in  the  Govern- 
ment examinations  in  the  knowledge  and  use  of 
the  Classics.  Some  Chinese  historians  maintain 
that  appointment  to  office  was  first  conditioned 
on  competitive  examinations  by  the  Emperor 
Shun  in  the  year  2200  b.  c.  Though  this  may 
be  doubted,  it  is  certain  that  now  the  system 
penetrates  the  whole  Empire,  and  thousands  and 
hundreds  of  thousands,  even  millions  compete 
for  the  degrees,  the  lowest,  or  "Budding  Gen- 
ius" corresponding  rudely  to  our  B.  A.,  the  sec- 
ond, ''Promoted  Scholar"  a  sort  of  M.  A.,  the 
third,  ''Fit  for  Office,"  a  sort  of  D.  C.  L,  or  LL. 
D.  To  which  may  be  added  a  fourth,  or  "  Han- 
lin  "  degree,  by  which  the  successful  scholar  be- 
comes a  member  of  the  Hanlin  Academy  or 
"  Forest  of  Pencils."  About  one  per  cent,  of  the 
rough  scholars  get  the  degree  of  "Budding  Gen- 
ius," and  from  the  fact  that  25,000  with  this  de- 
gree will  compete  at  one  provincial  capital  for 
the  second  degree,  one  gains  some  idea  of  the 
number  of  candidates.  About  one  per  cent, 
of  the  "Budding  Geniuses"  become  "Fit  for 
Office.  "1 

The  subjects  of  these  examinations  for  cen- 
turies  have  of  course  furnished  the  staple  of 

'Martin's  The  Chinese,  pp.  39-84. 
138 


Ch 


ma 


thought  of  the  Chinese  people,  and  the  Classics 
have  thus  been  woven  into  the  very  grain  and 
texture  of  the  Chinese  race.  They  have  memo- 
rized them  and  the  commentaries  upon  them  and 
have  looked  upon  their  absorption  and  the  model- 
ling of  life  upon  them,  as  the  consummation  of 
all  duties.  How  thoroughly  they  have  been  ex- 
pected to  do  this  such  questions  as  these  from 
the  examination  papers  will  indicate:  **  How  do 
the  rival  schools  of  Wang  and  Ching  differ  in  re- 
spect to  the  exposition  of  the  meaning  and  the 
criticism  of  the  Book  of  Changes  ?  "  * '  The  art  of 
war  arose  under  Hwang  te,  forty-four  hundred 
years  ago.  Different  dynasties  have  since  that 
time  adopted  different  regulations  in  regard  to 
the  use  of  militia  or  standing  armies,  the  mode 
of  raising  supplies  for  the  army,  etc.  Can  you 
state  these  briefly  ?  "  Or,  note  such  a  subject  for 
an  essay  as  this  passage  from  the  Analects  of 
Confucius.  **  Confucius  said,  '  How  majestic  was 
the  manner  in  which  Shun  and  Yu  held  pos- 
session of  the  Empire,  as  if  it  were  nothing  to 
them.'  Confucius  said,  'Great  indeed  was  Yaou 
as  a  sovereign!  How  majestic  was  he!  It  is 
only  Heaven  that  is  grand  and  only  Yaou  corre- 
sponded to  it!  How  vast  was  his  virtue!  The 
people  could  find  no  name  for  it.'"    A  few  years 

139 


Missions  and  Politics 

ago  the  University  of  London  admitted  to  its  in- 
itial examinations  annually  about  1,400  candi- 
dates, and  passed  one-half.  The  Government 
examinations  of  China  at  the  same  time  admit- 
ted about  2,000,000  annually,  and  passed  one  per 
cent/ 

This  great  device  has  worked  for  centuries  now. 
As  Dr.  Martin  has  pointed  out,  "It  has  served 
the  State  as  a  safety  valve,  providing  a  career  for 
those  ambitious  spirits  which  might  otherwise 
foment  disturbances  or  excite  revolutions.  It 
operates  as  a  counterpoise  to  the  power  of  an  ab- 
solute monarch.  With  it  a  man  of  talent  may 
raise  himself  from  the  humblest  ranks  to  the 
dignity  of  viceroy  or  premier.  It  gives  the  Gov- 
ernment a  hold  on  the  educated  gentry,  and  binds 
them  to  the  support  of  existing  institutions." 
And  its  influence  on  the  character  and  opinion  of 
the  people  has  been  simply  enormous.  That 
"the  Chinese  may  be  regarded  as  the  only  pagan 
nation  which  has  maintained  democratic  habits 
under  a  purely  despotic  theory  of  Government; 
that  this  Government  has  respected  the  rights  of 
its  subjects  by  placing  them  under  the  protection 
of  law,  with  its  sanctions  and  tribunals  (and 
keeping  them  there)  and  making  the  sovereign 

'  Idem,  pp.  51,  52. 
140 


China 

amenable  in  the  popular  mind  for  the  continuance 
of  his  sway  to  the  approval  of  a  higher  Power 
able  to  punish  him;  that  it  has  prevented  the 
domination  of  all  feudal,  hereditary  and  priestly 
classes  and  interests  by  making  the  tenure  of  of- 
ficers of  Government  below  the  throne  chiefly  de- 
pend on  their  literary  attainments;" — all  this  is 
due  to  the  influence  of  their  educational  system 
and  the  body  of  teaching  it  has  ground  into  the 
Nation.^ 

On  the  other  hand,  the  weaknesses  and  inef- 
ficiencies of  China  to-day  are  in  great  measure 
directly  traceable  to  the  same  influence  and  teach- 
ing. The  literati,  ''the  most  influential  portion 
of  the  population,"  are  the  most  conservative, 
bigoted  and  narrow-minded.  *'The  Chinese 
have  drawn  their  self-conceit  and  contempt  for 
all  foreigners  as  barbarians  from  the  ancient 
works."  "The  scholar  of  the  first  degree,"  says 
their  proverb,  "without  going  abroad  is  able  to 
know  what  transpires  under  the  whole  heaven." 
Confucius  lived  six  centuries  before  Christ.  To 
make  what  he  knew  and  the  wisdom  of  those 
who  went  before  him  the  total  of  all  available 
wisdom  and  to  school  men  into  this  conviction 
until  it  is  ineradicable  has  been  one  result  of  the 

» Wells  Williams'  Middle  Kingdom,  Vol.  ii.,  p.  191. 
141 


Missions  and  Politics 

Chinese  system  of  education.  It  has  limited 
knowledge  and  life  to  the  level  of  the  far  past, 
and  has  made  fidelity  to  this  old  antediluvianism 
the  test  of  all  things.  Chinese  education  has 
isolated  China  in  time  as  it  was  of  old  isolated  by 
language  and  in  space.  Confucianism  has  shown 
itself  as  stereotyped  and  sterile  as  Islam. 

This  is  not  an  uncharitable  judgment.  History 
and  the  present  evidence  of  life  have  passed  it. 
Confucianism  has  limited  the  horizon  of  men  to 
the  wisdom  of  twenty-five  centuries  ago.  "The 
past  is  made  for  slaves,"  said  Emerson,  and 
whatever  truth  is  in  his  saying  applies  to  the 
Chinese.  Confucianism  recognizes  no  relation  to 
a  living  God.  It  relegates  all  contact  with 
Heaven  even  to  an  annual  act  of  the  Emperor. 
It  ignores  the  plainest  facts  of  moral  character. 
It  has  no  serious  idea  of  sin,  and  indeed  no 
deeper  insight  at  all.  It  cannot  explain  death. 
It  holds  truth  of  light  account.  It  presupposes 
and  tolerates  polygamy  and  sanctions  polytheism. 
It  confounds  ethics  with  external  ceremonies  and 
reduces  social  life  to  tyranny.  It  rises  at  the  high- 
est no  higher  than  the  worship  of  genius,  the 
deification  of  man.^ 

Indeed  the  Chinese  themselves  long  ago  passed 

*  Faber's  Systematical  Digest  of  the  Doctrine  of  Confucius,  pp.  124-131. 

142 


China 

judgment  upon  the  inadequacy  of  Confucianism, 
and  with  that  utter  disregard  of  logical  consis- 
tency which  is  another  of  their  inexplicable  di- 
vergences from  the  ways  of  the  West,  added  to 
their  Confucian  beliefs  the  most  un-Confucian 
ideas  of  Taoism  and  Buddhism.  The  Chinese 
have  never  been  capable,  however,  of  holding 
either  of  these  religions  in  even  an  approximately 
pure  form.  Taoism  was  in  Lao  Tse's  hands  a 
high  transcendental  idealism,  but  his  followers  re- 
duced it  to  alchemy  and  necromancy.  Buddhism 
was  a  sort  of  atheistic  mysticism,  but  in  China  it 
became  a  system  of  m.agic  or  spiritual  thauma- 
turgy.  Any  line  of  division  between  these  two 
became  obscured,  and  both  were  absorbed  by  the 
Chinese  to  supply  in  a  measure  those  spiritual 
longings  which  Confucianism  had  been  futile  to 
suppress,  and  to  which  it  had  no  ministry.  But 
Taoism  and  Buddhism  while  having  firm  hold 
upon  the  Nation,  and  tinging  the  life  of  every 
man,  supplying  those  elements  of  superstition 
and  real  religion  which  the  agnosticism  of  Con- 
fucianism ignored,  have  never  been  able  to  shake 
the  older  system,  and  have  not  modified  in  the 
direction  of  enlightenment  and  broader  sympathy 
the  education  of  the  Chinese  race.  Isolated  at 
the  beginning,  twenty-five  centuries  of  narrow- 

143 


Missions  and  Politics 

ing  discipline  have  separated  the  Chinese  by  a 
mighty  chasm  from  other  Nations  and  the  sweep 
of  human  progress,  holding  them 

"Aloof  from  our  mutations  and  unrest 
Alien  to  our  achievements  and  desires." 

It  is  not  at  all  strange  that  people  of  such  a 
character  and  education  should  have  assumed  to- 
ward the  rest  of  the  world  the  attitude  they  have. 
Before  the  Western  Nations  molested  them,  their 
Empire  was  the  mistress  of  all.  The  little  king- 
doms round  about  she  treated  with  patronage  or 
contempt.  When  the  Western  Nations  came,  she 
judged  them  by  her  dependent  tribes,  and  spoke 
to  them  as  she  had  spoken  to  her  tributary  neigh- 
bors. "She  assumed  a  tone  of  superiority,  pro- 
nounced them  barbarians  and  demanded  tribute." 
This  was  due  to  her  ignorance  and  conceit.  Her 
conceit  abides,  and  it  is  to  be  feared,  so  also  does 
her  ignorance.  Thus  the  author  of  China's  In- 
tercourse with  Europe  wherein  the  facts  are 
given  from  the  Chinese  point  of  view,  says,  "As 
for  the  petty  States  of  the  German  Zollverein 
.  .  .  many  of  them  are  unknown  even  by 
name  in  the  historical  and  geographical  works 
accessible  to  us,  and  we  have  no  means  of  estab- 
lishing the  fact  of  their  alleged  existence!"^    A 

*  China's  Intercourse  with  Europe^  p.  114. 

144 


China 

correspondent  of  the  London  Times  recently  told 
of  a  conversation  with  some  Chinese  officials  on 
the  Tibetan  border,  in  which  reference  was 
made  to  the  capture  of  Peking  in  1862  by  the 
French  and  English.  "Yes,"  said  the  officials 
laughing,  **we  know  you  said  you  went  there, 
and  we  read  with  much  amusement  your  gazettes 
giving  your  account  of  it  all.  They  were  very 
cleverly  written  and  we  dare  say  deceived  your 
own  subjects  into  a  belief  that  you  actually  went 
to  Peking.  We  often  do  the  same  thing. " '  And 
even  in  the  famous  memorial  which  was  pre- 
sented in  1895,  signed  by  1,300  scholars  who  had 
taken  the  second  degree  and  represented  fourteen 
out  of  the  Eighteen  Provinces  of  China,  and 
which  urged  a  number  of  reforms,  the  establish- 
ment of  banks  and  post  offices,  railways,  encour- 
agement of  machinery,  mining,  newspapers, 
education,  etc.,  the  following  sentences  occur, 
showing  the  most  naive  ignorance  of  the  world. 
"Let  the  most  advanced  students  of  Confucian- 
ism be  called  up  by  the  Emperor  to  the  capital 
and  given  the  Hanlin  degree  and  funds  to  go 
abroad.  If  they  succeed  in  establishing  schools 
in  foreign  countries  where  are  gathered  1,000 
pupils,  let  them  be  ennobled.     Thus  we  shall  take 

*  Norman's  Peoples  and  Politics  of  the  Far  East,  p.  286. 

145 


Missions  and  Politics 

Confucianism  and  with  it  civilize  all  the  barbar- 
ians, and  under  the  cloak  of  preaching  Confu- 
cianism, travel  abroad  and  quickly  learn  the  mo- 
tives of  the  barbarians  and  extend  the  fame  of 
our  country." 

These  words  of  the  1,300  scholars  indicate  an- 
other element  of  China's  training  and  of  the 
present  situation.  Not  only  are  the  Chinese  a 
mighty,  curious  and  impressive  people  whom 
Western  Nations  have  misunderstood  and  de- 
spised, but  the  Chinese  have  also  misunderstood 
as  well  as  despised  the  Western  peoples.  Those 
same  features  of  their  character  and  education 
which  make  them  so  unintelligible  to  us  make  us 
unintelligible  to  them.  The  memorial  of  the 
1,300  scholars  proposes  that  Confucian  mission- 
aries be  sent  both  to  civilize  the  barbarians  of  the 
West,  and  to  learn  just  what  our  motives  are. 
^  From  the  Chinese  point  of  view,  these  seem  to 
me  to  be  eminently  just  and  reasonable  proposi- 
tions. And  even  from  an  unbiased  and  interme- 
diate point  of  view  it  must  be  acknowledged 
that  a  candid  comparison  of  Western  and  Chinese 
civilizations  does  not  leave  everything  to  be  said 
on  one  side.  With  a  pure  Christian  civilization 
Confucian  civilization  could  not  stand  comparison 
for  a  moment,  but  it  can  have  its  own  word  to 

146 


China 

say  in  any  controversy  with  our  actual  present 
stage  of  civilization  in  the  West.  And  as  to 
Chinese  confusion  as  to  the  real  motives  of  West- 
ern Nations,  who  can  wonder  that  they  are  an 
enigma  to  the  Chinese  ?  Are  they  not  to  us  ? 
Who  can  disentangle  the  sincere  from  the  selfish 
and  false  ?  **  Your  code  of  morals  is  defective  in 
one  point,"  said  Li  Hung  Chang  once,  "it  lays 
too  much  stress  on  charity  and  too  little  on  jus- 
\tice."  Who  can  reconcile  the  professed  motives 
of  the  Mission  movement  with  the  obvious  pur- 
poses of  European  Governments  ?  We  know  h- 
they  are  irreconcilable  and  do  not  try,  but  they  '^2~t^ 
are  the  double  face  of  a  single  party  to  the  Chi- 
nese. Besides  he  cannot  understand  the  restless- 
ness of  the  West,  its  unwillingness  to  stay  at 
home,  its  constant  spirit  of  disturbance,  of  change, 
the  lust  of  innovation,  its  domineering  impetu- 
ousness,  its  obtrusiveness,  its  irritating  refusal  to 
let  China  alone.  Nor  could  we  understand  these 
things  if  we  were  in  the  place  of  the  Chinese. 
Indeed  even  in  our  own  place  much  of  our  spirit 
and  of  the  spirit  of  our  Western  peoples  is  unin- 
telligible to  us,  save  as  the  inherited  genius  of  the 
race,  and  much  of  it  as  displayed  in  dealings  with 
Oriental  Nations  from  Turkey  to  China  is  as  a  foul 
v^stench  in  our  nostrils. 

147 


Missions  and  Politics 

Here  then  have  been  all  the  elements  of  a  most 
interesting  situation  which  has  altered  but  slightly 
since  the  gates  of  China  were  forced  about  fifty 
years  ago.  On  one  side  a  Nation  numbering  one- 
fourth  of  the  human  race,  not  comprehending, 
heartily  despising  the  Western  Nations,  desiring 
to  be  let  alone  and  to  live  on  in  the  ancient  ways 
of  the  sages.  On  the  other,  the  forceful  Nations 
of  the  West  not  comprehending  China,  viewing 
her  ludicrously  and  with  contempt,  but  insisting  on 
intercourse,  on  equal  terms,  and  demanding  that 
China  should  forego  her  desire  for  seclusion  and 
open  to  the  world.  This  struggle  and  the  forces 
which  have  entered  into  it,  have  constituted  the 
last  of  the  influences  which  have  produced  the 
China  of  our  present  history,  until  within  the  last 
few  months  the  European  Nations  have  threat- 
ened the  integrity  of  the  Eighteen  Provinces. 
The  want  of  proportion  in  our  historical  knowl- 
edge is  in  nothing  more  clearly  shown  than  in  our 
ignorance  of  the  steps  in  this  great  struggle,  espe- 
cially of  the  real  character  and  meaning  of  the 
Opium  and  Arrow  Wars.  The  average  student 
knows  only,  as  the  current  oratory  runs:  "that 
Great  Britain  forced  opium  on  helpless  and  protest- 
ing China  at  the  mouth  of  her  cannon,"  and 
scarcely  stops  to  think  of  the  deeper  significance 

148 


China 

of  those  acts  in  the  great  movement  which  had  to 
do  with  the  welfare  and  destiny  of  one-fourth  of 
the  human  race,  yes  and  the  welfare  and  destiny  of 
perhaps  two-fourths  more.  The  first  war,  1839- 
1842,  openedthefivetreaty  ports  of  Canton,  Amoy, 
Foochow,  Ningpo  and  Shanghai,  ceded  Hong  Kong 
to  Great  Britain,  authorized  trade  and  recognized 
foreigners.  "Looked  at  in  any  point  of  view," 
says  the  most  solid  writer  on  China,  ''political, 
commercial,  moral  or  intellectual,  it  will  always 
be  considered  as  one  of  the  turning  points  in  the 
history  of  mankind,  involving  the  welfare  of  all 
nations  in  its  wide-reaching  consequences.  .  .  . 
It  was  extraordinary  in  its  origin,  as  growing 
chiefly  out  of  a  commercial  misunderstanding; 
remarkable  in  its  course  as  being  waged  between 
strength  and  weakness,  conscious  superiority  and 
ignorant  pride;  melancholy  in  its  end  as  forcing 
the  weaker  to  pay  for  the  opium  within  its  borders 
against  all  its  laws,  thus  paralyzing  the  little 
moral  power  its  feeble  Government  could  exert  to 
protect  its  subjects;  and  momentous  in  its  results 
as  introducing,  on  a  basis  of  acknowledged  obli- 
gations, one-half  of  the  world  to  the  other,  with- 
out any  arrogant  demands  from  the  victors,  or 
humiliating  concessions  from  the  vanquished.  It 
was  a  turning-point  in  the  national  life  of  the 

149 


Missions  and  Politics 

Chinese  race."^  The  second  war,  1857-1860, 
grew  out  of  an  occurrence  of  a  most  trivial  char- 
acter, and  was  marked  by  the  pursuit  of  the 
most  petty,  private  and  even  unjustifiable  ends ;  ^ 
but  it  resulted  in  the  opening  of  nine  more  treaty 
ports ;  it  conceded  the  right  to  travel  throughout 
the  Eighteen  Provinces,  and  contained  a  special 
clause  giving  protection  to  foreigners  and  natives 
in  the  propagation  and  adoption  of  the  Christian 
religion. 

Now  although  troubles  over  opium  were  the 
occasion  of  the  first  war,  the  real  issues  were 
general  trade  intercourse  and  reciprocal  and  equal 
diplomatic  relations  as  necessary  thereto.  "The 
merchants  of  Great  Britain,"  said  Lord  Napier 
before  the  war,  "wish  to  trade  with  all  China  on 
principles  of  mutual  benefit;  they  will  never  relax 
their  exertions  till  they  gain  a  point  of  equal  impor- 
tance to  both  countries,  and  the  viceroy  will  find 
it  as  easy  to  stop  the  current  of  the  Canton  River 
as  to  carry  into  effect  the  insane  determinations 
of  the  Hong,"  (to  resist  these  trade  advances). 
Opium  was  an  accident  and  not  an  essential  of 
the  wars.  As  a  Chinese  writer  has  said  in  a 
novel  account  of  this  matter,  "It  is  plain  that  it 

*  Wells  Williams'  Middle  Kingdom^  Vol.  ii.,  pp.  463,  464. 
"Martin's  A  Cycle  of  Cathay,  pp.  143-190. 

150 


China 

was  not  the  destruction  of  the  opium,  but  the 
stoppage  of  trade,  which  caused  these  wars. 
.  .  .  This  was  sufficient  to  disappoint  and 
provoke  men  who  had  come  thousands  of  miles 
for  the  sake  of  gain.  .  .  .  Worms  only  ap- 
pear in  a  rotten  carcase,  and  it  was  only  when 
exaction  followed  exaction  and  justice  was  de- 
nied to  creditors,  that  the  foreigners  turned  upon 
us.  War  would  have  followed  all  the  same  even 
if  the  opium  trade  had  been  stopped ;  and  in  fact 
opium  only  came  because  profits  being  impossi- 
ble by  fair,  the  foreigners  v/ere  driven  to  obtain 
them  by  foul  means.  Some  people  argue  that  it 
was  the  granting  of  trade  in  the  first  instance  that 
brought  on  our  troubles.  But  this  is  absurd ;  for 
China  can  do  without  foreigners,  whilst  foreign- 
ers are  dependent  upon  us  for  tea  and  rhubarb, 
and  therefore  are  at  our  mercy.  All  that  is 
wanted  is  fair  trade  to  secure  their  willing  loy- 
alty."^ But  it  was  not  trade  only.  It  was  also 
the  recognition  of  equality  and  respect  that  the 
Western  Nations  demanded.  This  the  Chinese  of- 
ficials had  contemptuously  refused.  "The  great 
ministers  of  the  Chinese  Empire  ...  are  not 
permitted  to  have  intercourse  with  outside  bar- 

•  Parker's  Chinese  Account  of  the  Opium  War^  and  China's  Intercourse 
with  Europe^  p.  55. 

151 


Missions  and  Politics 

barians,"  said  the  Viceroy  of  Canton  to  the  Eng- 
lish Envoy.  In  reporting  the  matter  to  Peking, 
the  Canton  Governor  said,  "On  the  face  of  the 
envelope  (which  the  barbarian  Envoy  presented) 
the  forms  and  style  of  equality  were  used,  and 
there  were  absurdly  written  the  characters  *  Great 
English  Nation.'  Now  it  is  plain  on  the  least  re- 
flection, that  in  keeping  the  central  and  outside 
people  apart,  it  is  of  the  highest  importance  to 
maintain  dignity  and  sovereignty.  Whether  the 
said  barbarian  has  or  has  not  official  rank  there 
are  no  means  of  thoroughly  ascertaining.  But 
though  he  be  really  an  officer  of  the  said  Nation, 
he  yet  cannot  write  letters  on  equality  with  fron- 
tier officers  of  the  Celestial  Empire."  Later  the 
Governor  issued  a  paper  deprecating  the  disturb- 
ance of  trade  and  saying,  "Lord  Napier's  pre- 
vious opposition  necessarily  demands  such  a  mode 
of  procedure,  and  it  would  be  most  right  imme- 
diately to  put  a  stop  to  buying  and  selling.  But 
considering  that  the  said  Nation's  King  has  hitherto 
been  in  the  highest  degree  reverently  obedient, 
he  cannot  in  sending  Lord  Napier  at  this  time 
have  desired  him  thus  obstinately  to  resist.  The 
some  hundreds  of  thousands  of  commercial  duties 
yearly  coming  from  the  said  country  concern  not 
the  Celestial  Empire  the  extent  of  a  hair  or  a 

152 


China 

feather's  down.  .  .  .  But  the  tea,  the  rhu- 
barb, the  raw  silk  of  the  Inner  Land,  are  the 
sources  by  which  England's  people  live  and 
maintain  life.  For  the  fault  of  one  man.  Lord 
Napier,  must  the  livelihood  of  the  whole  Nation 
be  precipitately  cut  off  .^  .  .  .  I  cannot  bring 
my  mind  to  bear  it."^  And  this  tone  of  con- 
tempt and  insult  continued  without  exception 
or  relief.  What  could  Western  Nations  do  in  the 
face  of  it  ?  They  could  quietly  go  home  and 
abandon  trade  with  China  save  on  terms  of  in- 
feriority. China  wondered  that  they  so  persist- 
ently refused  to  do  this.  But  the  passion  for 
trade,  and  the  trade  God  who  rules  the  diplo- 
macy of  nations  was  fiercer  even  in  Western 
Nations  than  among  the  Chinese.  They  would 
trade,  and  they  would  trade  on  terms  of  self- 
respect,  and  to  accomplish  that  in  this  century 
could  only  be  done  by  war,  and  war  that  meant 
to  China  disgrace,  the  withdrawal  of  insult,  the 
abandonment  of  her  traditional  attitude  and  the 
destruction  of  her  isolated  seclusion,  and  that 
could  only  leave  with  her  ruling  class  the  sting 
of  defeat,  the  sense  of  doom  and  a  bitter  hatred 
of  that  restless,  encroaching  force  that  tears  men 
away  from  the  slavery  of  the  past  and  thrusts 

*  Wells  Williams'  Middle  Kingdom,  Vol.  ii.,  pp.  468,  472. 
153 


Missions  and  Politics 

them  out  into  the  future,  like  Abraham,  not 
knowing  whither  they  go. 

This  roughly  is  the  general  situation,  and  so 
much  of  history  has  been  set  forth  in  it  because 
in  China  every  present  situation  contains  the  past 
as  its  chief  element.  What  is  to  grow  out  of  this 
situation  ?  Whither  is  God  leading  the  Chinese  ? 
Is  their  day  spent,  their  history  done,  or  is  there 
yet  hope  for  them  ? 

First,  there  is  no  hope  for  them  in  Confucian- 
ism. It  has  had  free  scope  for  twenty-five  cen- 
turies, and  while  it  has  accomplished  the  results 
that  have  been  recognized,  it  contains  absolutely 
no  hope  for  the  future.  Progress  is  impossible 
under  it.  It  ties  the  race  hand  and  foot  and 
flings  it  back  into  a  patriarchal  dotage.  As  to 
Buddhism,  while  its  superstitions  and  idols  sup- 
ply what  they  can  to  meet  the  irrepressible  spirit- 
ual needs  of  the  people,  its  priests,  as  Eitel  says, 
"Are  mostly  recruited  from  the  lowest  classes, 
and  one  finds  among  them  frequently  the  most 
wretched  specimens  of  humanity,  more  devoted 
to  opium  smoking  than  any  other  class  in  China. 
They  have  no  intellectual  tastes,  they  have  cen- 
turies ago  ceased  to  cultivate  the  study  of  San- 
scrit, they  know  next  to  nothing  about  the  his- 
tory of  their  own  religion,  living  together  mostly 

154 


China 

in  idleness,  and  occasionally  going  out  to  earn 
some  money  by  reading  litanies  for  the  dead,  or 
acting  as  exorcists  and  sorcerers  or  physicians. 
No  community  of  interest,  no  ties  of  social  life, 
no  object  of  generous  ambition,  beyond  the  sat- 
isfying of  those  wants  which  bind  them  to  the 
cloister,  diversify  the  monotonous  current  of  their 
daily  life,"  while  "the  people  as  a  whole  have 
no  respect  for  the  Buddhist  Church  and  habitu- 
ally sneer  at  the  Buddhist  priests."^  As  for  Tao- 
ism the  high  and  noble  views  of  Lao  Tse  have 
sunk  to  the  lowest  oracularism,  and  its  supersti- 
tions are  only  a  grade  below  those  of  Buddhism 
with  which  now  in  China  it  is  inextricably  inter- 
woven. The  most  pitiably  abject  human  being  I 
ever  saw  was  a  Taoist  priest,  with  long  matted 
hair  run  through  with  straws,  half  naked,  beg- 
ging in  the  streets  of  Peking.  In  her  own  reli- 
gions, there  is  no  hope  for  China. 

Nor  is  there  any  in  her  political  and  civil  insti- 
tutions. They  are  rotten  through  and  through, 
though  sufficient  for  her  old  life  and  isolation, 
but  she  is  not  allowed  her  old  life  and  isolation 
any  longer.  The  introduction  of  mathematics 
and  Western  sciences  and  even  questions  as 
to  the  Bible  into  the  competitive  examinations, 
the  throb  of  the  railway  past  the  graves  of  the 

•Eitel's  Buddhism,  pp.  33,  34, 

155 


Missions  and  Politics 

sages,  the  profile  of  the  telegraph  against  the 
dragon  outline  of  the  hills,  the  hum  of  the  spindle 
in  the  cotton  mills,  and  engines  in  the  silk  fac- 
tories, and  the  ramifying  filaments  of  Western 
trade  introduce  conditions  for  which  the  old 
forms  and  the  old  officials  are  unfit.  It  will  be 
enough  if  they  can  keep  up  with  the  new  times. 
There  is  no  leading  in  them. 

And  although  we  believe  that  God  is  in  His 
heaven  and  all's  well  with  His  world,  and  that 
the  conduct  of  European  nations  in  China  at  the 
present  time  will  in  the  end  work  into  His  mighty 
purposes,  and  indeed  is  working  into  those  pur- 
poses even  now,  this  seems  to  me  a  dishearten- 
ing quarter  to  which  to  turn  for  help  and  hope. 
Mr.  Curzon  may  entertain  the  curious  fancy  of  a 
secular  redemption.  "The  best  hope  of  salva- 
tion for  the  old  and  moribund  in  Asia,  the  wisest 
lessons  for  the  emancipated  and  new,  are  still  to 
be  derived  from  the  ascendency  of  British  char- 
acter, and  under  the  shelter,  where  so  required, 
of  British  dominion."^  But  where  is  the  redemp- 
tive power  that  has  regenerated  Hong  Kong  and 
Singapore  ?  And  how  much  salvation  has  come 
to  Shanghai  from  Foochow  Road  ?  Has  French 
rule  brought  hope  to  Tonquin  ?    Has  Spain  given 

*  Curzon's  Problems  of  the  Far  East,  new  ed.,  p.  15. 
156 


China 

help  to  the  Philippines  ?  Wherein  has  Borneo  been 
redeemed  by  the  Dutch  or  Bokhara  by  the  Rus- 
sians ?  If  the  real  partition  of  China  comes,  as  it 
may,  and  Russia  takes  Manchuria  and  Chili,  and 
Germany  Shantung,  and  England  the  valleys  of 
the  Yangtse  and  the  West  Rivers,  and  the  whole 
body  and  heart  of  China  lying  between,  and 
France  Hainan  and  the  southern  section  of 
Kwangtung  and  Kwang  Si  and  Yunnan,' — it  will 
mean  good  I  am  sure,  though  what  an  ignomini- 
ous end  of  the  Middle  and  Heavenly  Kingdom  it 
will  be! — but  it  is  not  the  direction  in  which  one 
turns  for  help  or  hope,  especially  with  the  sounds 
of  trade  so  filling  the  air,  the  clamor  of  the  navies 
and  the  shouts  of  Prince  Henry  preaching  the 
gospel  of  the  consecrated  person  of  the  queer 
Emperor  of  Germany,  and  William's  Minister  of 
Foreign  Affairs  saying  in  the  Reichstag  ''that 
Germany  could  no  longer  exclude  herself  from 
sharing  the  promising  new  markets.  That  the 
time  had  passed  when  Germany  was  content  to 
look  on  and  see  other  countries  dividing  the  world 
among  them,  while  Germany  contented  herself 
with  a  place  in  heaven.  The  intentions  of  Ger- 
many toward  China  were  benevolent  .  .  . 
but  Germany  could  not  permit  China  to  treat 

*  Martin's  Cycle  of  Cathay,  p.  399. 
157 


Missions  and  Politics 

German  interests  as  subordinate  to  those  of  other 
nations."  And  the  speaker  concluded,  the  cable 
dispatch  said,  "amid  long  and  loud  applause  by 
saying  '  We  will  not  put  other  people  in  the  shade, 
but  we  claim  for  ourselves  a  place  in  the  sun.'" 
That  was  a  pertinent  prayer  of  the  Queen's 
Jubilee : — 

"  If  drunk  with  sight  of  power  we  loose 
"Wild  tongues  that  have  not  Thee  in  awe — 
Such  boastings  as  the  Gentiles  use 
Or  lesser  breeds  without  the  Law — 
Lord  God  of  Hosts,  be  with  us  yet, 
Lest  we  forget— lest  we  forget. 

"  For  heathen  heart  that  puts  her  trust 
In  reeking  tube  and  iron  shard — 
All  valiant  dust  that  builds  on  dust, 
And  guarding  calls  not  Thee  to  guard— 
For  frantic  boast  and  foolish  word. 
Thy  mercy  on  Thy  people.  Lord." 

Yet  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  tumult  of  the 
Captains  and  the  Kings  seems  to  the  people  to  be 
the  force  supreme.  And  it  may  make  very  visi- 
ble changes  on  the  maps  and  create  new  names 
for  the  histories  and  for  a  generation  seem  to  be 
controlling  character  and  life,  but  the  long  view 
of  history  and  the  deeper  insight  will  lead  us  to 
look  further  still  for  any  permanent  source  of 
help  and  hope  for  China.  For  those  forces  are 
the  greatest  which  most  affect  character.  Con- 
fucianism is  so  powerful  and  so  hopeless  because 
of  its  enormous  influence  upon  the  character  of 

158 


China 

the  people.  Determinations  of  territorial  bound- 
aries and  assignments  of  political  authority  are 
minor  and  insignificant  in  comparison  with  the 
forces  which  run  down  to  the  roots  of  personal 
life.  And  of  these  forces  time  will  show  that 
none  is  running  deeper  or  spreading  more  widely 
than  Christianity. 

Christianity  was  first  brought  to  China  by  the 
Nestorians  early  in  the  sixth  century,  and  the 
only  known  traces  of  their  work  are  preserved 
in  the  famous  Nestorian  tablet  found  in  the  Prov- 
ince of  Shansi  in  1725.  The  Roman  Catholics 
began  their  work  in  the  thirteenth  century,  and 
with  glorious  devotion,  and  some  readiness  to  tem- 
porize, to  flatter,  to  dissemble  and  to  deceive. 
Their  work  grew  greatly,  winning  at  last  the 
favor  of  the  Emperor  Kanghi  until  Clement  XI. 
joined  issue  with  him  over  ancestral  worship  and 
some  other  ceremonies,  and  then  the  missionaries 
were  expelled  from  the  country.  From  1767  to 
1820  they  were  persecuted,  ordered  to  leave  or 
slain,  but  continued  apparently  to  conduct  them- 
selves in  the  manner  of  which  one  of  their  own 
number,  Pere  Repa  complained,  saying,  **lf  our 
European  missionaries  in  China  would  conduct 
themselves  with  less  ostentation^  and  accommo- 

*  Vid.  also  Monseigneur  Reynoud's  Another  China,  p.  39,  which  is  a  Ro- 
man Catholic  view. 

159 


Missions  and  Politics 

date  their  manners  to  persons  of  all  ranks  and 
conditions,  the  number  of  converts  would  be  im- 
mensely increased.  Their  garments  are  made  of 
the  richest  materials  .  .  .  and  as  they  never 
mix  with  the  people,  they  make  but  few  con- 
verts." As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  they  have 
made  many  converts  and  doubtless  many  good 
Christians.  Protestant  Missions  began  with  Mor- 
rison in  1807,  and  together  with  Roman  Catholic 
Missions  were  recognized  and  legalized  by  the 
treaties  made  after  the  war  of  i860.  Article  VIII. 
of  the  British  treaty  reads  "The  Christian  religion 
as  professed  by  Protestants  or  Roman  Catholics 
inculcates  the  practice  of  virtue  and  teaches  men 
to  do  as  they  would  be  done  by.  Persons  teach- 
ing it  or  professing  it,  therefore,  shall  alike  be 
entitled  to  the  protection  of  the  Chinese  authori- 
ties; nor  shall  any  such,  peaceably  pursuing  their 
calling,  and  not  offending  against  the  laws,  be 
persecuted  or  interfered  with." 

Thus  introduced  and  recognized  two  things 
have  prevented  Christianity's  exercise  of  its  full 
power  One  has  been  the  difficulty  of  adjusting 
it  to  the  Chinese  mind  in  such  a  way  as  not 
to  commit  it  to  anything  unessential  which  is 
repugnant  to  the  Chinese  mind,  and  to  fit  it  pre- 
cisely to  the  fundamental  spiritual  needs  and  ca- 

160 


Ch 


ina 


pacities  of  the  race.  I  asked  one  of  the  ablest 
missionaries  in  China,  what  were  the  great  prob- 
lems of  the  work  in  China,  and  he  replied  in- 
stantly, "They  are  one-^How  to  present  Christ 
JtQ  the  Chinese-mind.."  There  is  nothing  else  on 
earth  like  that  mind,  so  full  of  distortions,  of 
atrophies,  of  abnormalities,  of  curious  twists 
and  deficiencies,  and  how  to  avoid  all  unneces- 
sary prejudice  and  difficulty,  and  to  make  use  of 
prepared  capacity  and  notion  so  as  to  gain  for  the 
Christian  message  the  most  open  and  unbiased 
reception,  is  a  problem  unsolved  as  yet  and  be- 
yond any  of  our  academic  questionings  here. 
For  example,  the  Chinese  idea  of  filial  piety  has 
in  it  much  that  is  Christian  and  noble  and  true, 
and  yet  much  that  is  absurd  and  untrue.  To 
recognize  and  avail  of  the  former  aspects  and  not 
to  alienate  and  anger  in  stripping  off  the  latter,  is 
one  phase  of  this  problem.  Where  is  there  one 
more  wonderfully  interesting  and  more  baffling  ? 
The  second  thing  that  has  hampered  Chris- 
tianity has  been  jts  political  entanglements.  The 
last  few  months  have  given  a  characteristic  illus- 
tration of  this.  The  murder  of  two  German 
missionaries  in  Shantung  province  was  at  once 
made  the  pretext  of  seizing  a  bay  with  its  pro- 
tecting fortifications,  and  bade  fair  to  precipitate 

161 


Missions  and  Politics 

the  dismemberment  of  the  Chinese  Empire.  Is 
it  wonderful  that  the  Chinese  distrust  the  char- 
acter of  the  Mission  movement,  are  sceptical  as 
to  its  non-political  character,  and  view  Chris- 
tianity with  suspicion  ?  China  has  disliked  the 
Western  Nations  from  the  start.  Their  overbear- 
ing willfulness,  their  remorseless  aggression,  their 
humiliating  victories,  their  very  peccable  diplo- 
macy have  all  strengthened  her  dislike.  The  un- 
fortunate occasion  of  the  first  war  which  brought 
Great  Britain  forward  as  the  defender  of  the 
wretched  opium  traffic,  which  the  Chinese  Cen- 
tral Government  at  least  was  making  sincere 
efforts  to  suppress,  placed  the  Western  Nations 
in  the  position  of  supporting  by  arms  what  China 
knew  to  be  morally  wrong.  The  general  bear- 
ing of  the  foreign  commercial  class,  ignorant  of 
the  language,  of  the  people  and  of  their  preju- 
dices has  increased  the  anti-foreign  feeling  of  the 
Chinese  yet  more.  The  charge  that  the  mission- 
ary movement  as  a  religious  movement  is  respon- 
sible for  the  anti-foreign  feeling  is  fantastic  and 
it  is  not  supported  by  facts.  Missions  have  made 
a  hundred  friends  to  every  foe. 

The  missionary  would  undoubtedly  in  any 
event  have  had  to  share  some  of  this  hatred, 
as  a  member  of  one  of  the  objectionable  na- 

162 


China 

tionalities;  but  the  Chinese  are  capable  of  dis- 
tinctions, and  would  soon  have  learned  that  the 
Mission  movement  was  sharply  distinct  from  all 
political  bearings,  if  indeed  it  had  been  so.  But 
from  the  beginning  of  foreign  intercourse,  the 
trader  and  the  missionary  have  been  classed  to- 
gether. The  same  rights  have  been  claimed  for 
each,  and  the  claim  was  enforced  by  war  in  the 
case  of  the  trader,  and  the  consequent  treaties 
included  the  missionary.  Ever  since,  through 
the  legations,  missionary  rights  under  the  treaties 
have  perhaps  been  the  chief  matter  of  business, 
and  outrages  on  missionaries  have  been  followed 
by  demands  for  reparation  and  indemnity.  No 
Government  was  willing  to  surrender  its  duty  to 
protect  its  citizens,  and  even  if  the  missionaries 
had  refused  protection,  it  would  have  been  forced 
on  them  for  the  sake  of  maintaining  traditional 
prestige,  and  defending  traders  and  trade  inter- 
ests from  assault. 

In  consequence,  the  missionary  work  has  been 
unable  to  appear  as  the  propaganda  of  a  kingdom 
that  is  not  of  this  world.  The  Chinese  officials 
are  unable,  with  few  exceptions,  to  conceive  of 
it  except  as  a  part  of  the  political  scheme  of 
Western  Nations  to  acquire  influence  in  China, 
and  to  subvert  the  Government  and  the  principles 

163 


Missions  and  Politics 

of  loyalty  on  which  it  rests.  "It  is  our  opinion 
that  foreign  missionaries  are  in  very  truth  the 
source  whence  springs  all  trouble  in  China,",  so 
says  one  of  the  Chinese  "Blue  Books."  "For- 
eigners come  to  China  from  a  distance  of  several 
ten  thousands  of  miles,  and  from  about  ten  dif- 
ferent countries  with  only  two  objects  in  view; 
namely,  trade  and  religious  propagandism.  With 
the  former  they  intend  to  gradually  deprive  China 
of  her  wealth,  and  with  the  latter  they  likewise 
seek  to  steal  away  the  hearts  of  her  people.  The 
ostensible  pretext  they  put  forward  is,  the  culti- 
vation of  friendly  relations:  what  their  hidden 
purpose  is,  is  unfathomable."^  Even  a  Roman 
Catholic  priest,  and  his  people  are  the  worst  of- 
fenders in  this,  writes:  "Whence  comes  this 
obstinate  determination  to  reject  Christianity  ?  It 
is  not  religious  fanaticism,  for  no  people  are  so 
far  gone  as  the  Chinese  in  scepticism  and  indiffer- 
ence. One  may  be  a  disciple  of  Confucius  or  of 
Lao  Tse,  Mussulman  or  Buddhist,  the  Chinese 
Government  does  not  regard  it.  It  is  only  against 
the  Christian  religion  it  seeks  to  defend  itself.  It 
sees  all  Europe  following  on  the  heels  of  the 
Apostles  of  Christ,  Europe  with  her  ideas,  her 
civilization,  and  with  that  it  will  have  absolutely 

'Michie's  China  and  Christianity,  p.  loi. 
1G4 


China 

nothing  to  do,  being  rightly  or  wrongly  satisfied 
with  the  ways  of  its  fathers."* 

Out  of  a  very  profound  ignorance  of  the  sub- 
ject of  Missions  in  China,  Mr.  Henry  Norman, 
after  alluding  to  ''the  minute  results  of  good  and 
the  considerable  results  of  harm  "  they  produce, 
says,  ''At  any  rate,  in  considering  the  future  of 
China,  the  missionary  influence  cannot  be  counted 
upon  for  any  good.'"*  I  believe  that  its  affilia- 
tions with  the  political  and  commercial  schemes 
of  the  West,  which  are  Mr.  Norman's  deities,  and 
the  way  France  and  Germany  make  it  a  cat's-paw 
are  seriously  hindering  it  from  doing  its  purely 
spiritual  work;  but  even  with  this  hindrance  and 
the  difficulty  of  a  wise  adjustment  to  the  Chinese 
mind,  with  its  aptitudes  and  incapacities,  it  is  the 
most  penetrating  and  permeating  force  working 
in  China  to  lead  her  on  to  the  new  day,  and  its 
messengers  are  the  heralds  of  the  dawn.  "Be- 
lieve nobody  when  he  sneers  at  them,"  said 
Colonel  Denby.  "The  man  is  simply  not 
posted."  The  1,300  scholars,  whose  memorial  I 
have  already  quoted,  know  better  than  to  sneer. 
"Every  province  is  full  of  chapels,"  they  wrote, 
"whilst  we  have  only  one  temple  in  each  county 

*  Michie's  Missionaries  in  China,  p,  67. 

'Norman's  Peoples  and  Politics  of  the  Far  East,  pp.  280-282,  304-308. 

165 


Missions  and  Politics 

for  our  sage  Confucius.  Is  this  not  painful  ?  Let 
religious  instruction  be  given  in  each  county. 
Let  all  the  charitable  institutions  help.  Let  all  the 
unowned  temples  and  charity  guilds  be  made  into 
temples  of  the  Confucian  religion,  and  thus  make 
the  people  good,  and  stop  the  progress  of  strange 
doctrines."  When  Bishop  Moule,  who  is  still 
living  at  Hangchow,  came  to  China,  there  were 
only  forty  Protestants  in  the  Empire.  Now  there 
are  80,000,  and  in  addition  the  multitudes  enrolled 
in  the  Church  of  Rome.  They  are  erring  who 
are  not  reckoning  with  the  powerful  work  the 
Christian  Church  is  doing  amid  the  foundations 
of  the  Chinese  Empire.  She  blows  few  trumpets 
from  the  housetops.  She  boasts  with  no  naval 
displays.  Her  trust  is  not  put  in  reeking  tube  and 
iron  shard.  Guarding  she  calls  on  God  to  guard, 
and  under  His  guarding  is  doing  at  the  roots  of 
Chinese  life  the  work  of  the  new  creation,  and 
out  of  her  work  a  Church  is  rising  of  a  new  sort. 
It  will  have  its  own  heresies  and  trials,  but  it  will 
have  elements  of  power  which  have  belonged  to 
none  of  God's  other  peoples;  and  I  think  it  will 
lean  back  on  the  rock  of  the  rule  of  the  Living 
God  which  we  are  abandoning  for  the  rule  of  our 
own  wills.  And  whether  the  Chinese  race  shall 
serve  the  future  as  one  nation  or  as  the  peaceful 

166 


Chi 


ina 


and  submissive  fragments  of  a  once  mighty  Em- 
pire, this  much  is  true: — the  service  they  will  ren- 
der will  have  been  touched  by  Christ  whose 
movement  will  go  on  ''until  all  the  cities,  towns, 
villages  and  hamlets  of  that  vast  Empire  have  the 
teacher  and  professor  of  religion  living  in  them, 
until  their  children  are  taught,  their  liberties  un- 
derstood, their  rights  assured,  their  poor  cared 
for,  their  literature  purified,  and  their  condition 
bettered  in  this  world  by  the  full  revelation  of 
another  made  known  to  them,"^  out  of  which 
One  has  come  greater  than  Confucius,  greater 
than  Lao  Tse,  to  dwell  among  men  and  be  their 
Living  King. 

*  Wells  Williams'  Middle  Kingdom^  Vol.  ii.,  p.  371. 


167 


LECTURE  IV 

Japan 


169 


My  soul  is  sailing-  through  the  sea^ 
But  the  Past  is  heavy  and  hinder eth  me. 
The  Past  hath  crusted  cumbrous  shells 
That  hold  the  flesh  of  cold  sea-mells 

About  my  soul. 
The  huge  waves  wash,  the  high  waves  roll 
Each  barnacle  clingeth  and  worketh  dole 
And  hindereth  me  from  sailing  I 

Old  Past  let  go,  and  drop  V  the  sea 
Till  fathomless  waters  cover  thee  ! 
For  I  am  living  but  thou  art  dead ; 
Thou  drawest  back,  I  strive  ahead 

The  Day  to  find. 
Thy  shells  unbind !    Night  comes  behind^ 
I  needs  jnust  hurry  with  the  wind. 
And  trim  me  best  for  sailing. 

Sydney  Lanier,  Barnacles. 


170 


LECTURE  IV 

JAPAN 

*'It  is  like  passing  from  night  into  day,"  says 
Mr.  Chirrol,  in  The  Far  Eastern  Question,  ex- 
pressing the  common  feeling  of  travellers,  "from 
an  atmosphere  laden  with  the  oppressive  odors  of 
decay  into  one  charged  with  the  ozone  of  ex- 
uberant vitality.  On  the  Western  shores  of  the 
Yellow  Sea  the  traveller  has  left  behind  him  a 
countless  conglomeration  of  human  beings  which 
no  homogeneity  of  race,  language  or  religion  has 
availed  to  weld  together  into  a  nation,  a  cumber- 
some and  corrupt  bureaucracy  which  barely  con- 
tinues to  keep  the  ponderous  machinery  of  Gov- 
ernment moving  in  the  well-worn  ruts  of  time- 
honored  abuses,  and  a  central  authority,  loose  and 
shiftless  at  the  best,  and  now  distracted  to  the 
verge  of  utter  hopelessness  and  imbecility.  On 
its  Eastern  shores  he  lands  amongst  a  people 
whose  national  vigor  has  been  strung  to  the  high- 
est point  of  tension  by  a  strenuously  centralized 
administration  which  itself  responds  in  complete 
sympathy  of  intellect  and  heart  to  the  touch  of 

171 


Missions  and  Politics 

enlightened  and  resolute  rulers.  Alone  amongst 
all  Asiatic  Nations,  Japan  seems  to  have  realized 
in  its  fullest  sense  the  modern  conception  of 
patriotism,  such  as  we  understand  it  in  the  West. 
In  China  the  eyes  of  even  the  best  among  the  liv- 
ing generation  are  hypnotized  by  constant  con- 
templation of  the  dead  past;  in  Japan  all  eyes 
are  straining  toward  the  future.  On  the  one 
hand  the  chaos  of  misrule,  corruption  and  igno- 
rance; on  the  other,  a  rigid  discipline  based  on  an 
individual  sense  of  duty  and  an  innate  love  of 
order.  In  China  an  almost  universal  trend  down- 
ward into  the  common  slough  of  despond;  in 
Japan  a  combined  effort  to  level  upward.  In 
both  countries  the  lower  classes  are  patient  and 
industrious ;  but  while  in  China  what  remains  to 
them  of  the  fruits  of  their  industry  after  they  have 
been  squeezed  by  their  rulers,  is  too  often  squan- 
dered in  opium  smoking,  and  in  an  insensate 
mania  for  gambling,  thrift  is  the  rule  in  Japan. 
In  both  countries  they  are  easily  governed,  but  in 
China  there  is  the  dull,  unreasoning  resignation 
of  the  overworked  beast  of  burden,  in  Japan  the 
ready  acquiescence  of  a  bright  and  light-hearted 
people  instinct  with  the  joyousness  of  life." 

This  bright  antithesis  is  not  wholly  just,  but  it 
serves  well  to  emphasize  the  fact  that  China  and 

172 


Japan 

Japan  have  chosen  different  paths  even  as  they 
are  marked  by  radically jdifferent  racial  tempera- 
ments. Their  temperaments  have  differed  from 
the  beginning.  They  chose  the  divergent  paths 
fifty  years  ago.  Until  then,  the  period  of  the 
Opium  War  in  China  and  of  Commodore  Perry's 
visit  to  Japan,  the  two  Empires  held  the  same  at- 
titude toward  the  outside  world.  Since  then 
they  have  separated  from  one  another  as  the  East 
from  the  West.  ''China  compelled  to  abandon 
her  old  exclusiveness  has  yielded  as  little  as  pos- 
sible," and  is  bogged  still  deep  in  the  mire  of 
Confucian  antiquity  and  unprogressiveness.  Japan 
renounced  her  isolation  without  waiting  for  the 
application  of  force  and  has  launched  out  into  a 
new  life,  having  a  place  now  at  the  council 
board  of  the  Nations.  There  is  scarcely  a  better 
illustration  in  history  of  ''the  immense  advantage 
which  an  active  striving  for  the  better  possesses 
over  an  inert  adherence  to  tradition." 

From  the  third  century  b.  c,  when  the  builder 
of  the  great  wall,  though  failing  to  subject  Japan, 
still  brought  her  in  a  measure  under  the  intellectual 
influence  of  China,  until  the  dividing  of  the  ways 
between  the  two  Nations  in  our  own  century, 
China  and  Japan  have  stood  together  in  history 
and  in  the  minds  of  the  Western  Nations  as  pre- 

173 


Missions  and  Politics 

serving  in  the  main  a  policy  of  seclusion  and 
aloofness.  Of  their  own  history  during  the 
earlier  centuries,  the  Japanese  themselves  know 
little.  There  are  no  reliable  records  of  the  period 
prior  to  the  fifth  century  of  our  era.  When  au- 
thentic history  begins  we  see  a  people  whose 
origin  is  unknown,  possessing  evident  gifts  of 
adaptation,  developing  an  interesting  political 
system,  and  absorbing  civilization  and  arts  from 
neighboring  Continental  lands.  This  tide  poured 
in  through  Korea  in  the  period  between  the  third 
and  eighth  centuries.  It  brought  with  it  Chinese 
philosophy,  Confucian  morals  and  Chinese  litera- 
ture. Tailors,  excellent  horses,  annalists,  mulberry 
trees,  silk  worms,  architects,  diviners,  astrono- 
mers, doctors,  mathematicians,  learned  men  came 
over  from  Korea,  and  by  no  means  least  of  all, 
those  secrets  of  ceramics  which  were  long  ago 
lost  in  the  land  of  their  origin  but  which  have 
made  Japanese  pottery  famous. 

The  Japanese  readily  acknowledge  these  obli- 
gations and  draw  their  own  conclusions  from 
their  successful  absorption  of  Chinese  and  Ko- 
rean civilization.  As  one  of  them  writes  in  a 
recent  article,  *'In  spite  of  the  readiness  and  en- 
ergy we  have  shown  in  our  reforms  and  general 
progress,  it  has  been  doubted  whether  we  could 

174 


Japan 

really  assimilate  the  civilization  of  the  West. 
.  .  .  But  one  who  has  taken  the  trouble  to 
study  the  history  of  our  Nation  cannot  fail  to  see 
that  she  was  singularly  prepared  to  receive  the 
light  from  the  West.  Formerly,  Japan  adopted 
ideas  and  institutions  from  the  Continent  of  Asia, 
infused  them  with  a  spirit  peculiar  to  her  people, 
and  developed  them  according  to  the  needs  of 
her  situation,  even  after  these  ideas  and  institu- 
tions had  degenerated  or  even  disappeared  in  the 
land  of  their  origin.  It  was  Confnrianism  whirh 
formed  the  foundation  of  the  Japanese  ethical 
conceptions.  Our  social  institutions  were  also 
largely  borrowed  from  China.  Even  Buddhism, 
which  has  made  the  nations  of  continental  Asia 
mild  and  sluggish,  exercised  in  Japan  a  healthy 
influence.  .  .  .  Generally  speaking,"  he  adds, 
*'the  statement  that  life  consists  in  receiving  from 
without  and  assimilating  within  seems  to  apply 
to  no  form  of  life  with  greater  truth  than  to  the 
life  of  Japan."  ^ 

As  the  writer  I  have  just  quoted  intimates, 
more  was  borrowed  than  just  Confucian  litera- 
ture and  Chinese  civilization.  The  great  mission- 
ary religion  which  had  died  away  in  India,  only 
to  come  to  mightier  life  in  lands  to  the   East 

*  The  Far  East,  English  Edition  of  Kokunn'n-no-Tomo,  Vol.  i.,  No.  i,  p.9. 
175 


Missions  and  Politics 

and  North,  came  in  also.^  In  the  sixth  century, 
the  Korean  rulers  presented  a  number  of  Bud- 
dhist books,  idols,  etc.,  to  several  Mikados,  and 
the  new  faith  made  way,  bu^  slowly,  though  some 
members  of  the  royal  family  accepted  it  and  so 
made  it  the  fashionable  thing  to  be  priests  or 
nuns.  Seventy-five  years  after  its  introduction 
there  were  but  forty-six  temples  in  the  land. 
After  twenty-five  years  of  Protestant  Missions 
there  were  ten  times  as  many  Christian  churches. 
But  it  was  in  the  eighth  century  under  the  Em- 
peror Shomu,  who  spoke  of  himself  as  **the 
servant  of  Buddha,  the  Law  and  the  Priesthood," 
and  who  commanded  that  two  temples  should 
be  built  in  each  province,  that  the  new  religion 
took  deep  root  working  its  way  down  among 
the  lower  classes,  one  of  the  few  illustrations  in 
history  of  a  religion's  acceptance  first  by  the  rich 
and  the  great  and  its  subsequent  adaptation  to 
the  poor,  although,  as  Dr.  Gordon  of  Kioto  has 
pointed  out,  even  with  the  perpetration  of  **the 
most  gigantic  of  pious  frauds  in  its  propagation, 
it  took  many  centuries  for  it  to  reach  the  popular 
heart,  and  it  never  gained  that  undivided  alle- 
giance which  we  regard  as  a  sine  qua  non  to  the 
faith  of  the  Christian."  ^ 

*  Transactions  of  the  Asiatic  Society  0/ Japan,  Vol.  xiv.,  Part  I.,  pp.  73-80. 

'Proceedings  of  the  Osaka  Conference,  1883,  p.  92. 

176 


Japan 

With  all  these  borrowings,  however,  the  Jap- 
anese did  develop  two  original  things:  a  dual 
system  of  government,  and  an  interesting  Ori- 
ental feudalism.  In  the  twelfth  century,  Yori- 
tomo  established  the  former,  the  Mikado  appoint- 
ing him  Shogun  in  1192,  and  so  initiating  the 
system  which  was  abolished  in  1868,  when  the 
Mikado  came  out  of  his  divine  retirement  and 
took  back  from  the  Shoguns  the  power  which 
for  seven  centuries  they  had  administered  in  his 
name  and  with  the  sanctions  of  his  heavenly 
origin  and  authority.  Feudalism  grew  out  of  the 
Shogunate  by  three  steps — the  first  when  Yori- 
tomo  obtained  full  military  authority  as  High 
Constable  of  the  realm,  and  appointed  military 
magistrates  throughout  the  provinces;  the  second 
when  the  Ashikoga  Shoguns  made  the  magis- 
tracies hereditary  in  the  families  of  their  own 
nominees;  the  third  when  the  Shogun  Hideyoshi 
parcelled  out  the  fiefs  by  titles  in  his  own  name 
without  reference  to  the  sovereign,  and  when 
lyeyasu  based  the  power  of  his  dynasty  on  the 
tie  of  personal  fealty  to  himself  and  his  successors 
as  lords  paramount  of  the  lands  of  the  daimios 
and  hatamatos.^ 


'  The  Japan  Mail,  Nov.  25,  1876,  quoted  in  Griffis's  The  Mikado's  Em- 
pire, p.  228. 

177 


Missions  and  Politics 

During  these  centuries  of  isolation  from  the 
West  life  moved  slowly  in  Japan.  The  absorp- 
tion of  Chinese  civilization  and  its  modifications 
under  Japanese  feudahsm  were  not  enlivening 
processes.  During  a  period  of  120  years  under 
the  last  line  of  the  Shoguns  the  population  of  the 
land  increased  less  than  in  any  two  years  since 
1886. 

There  was,  however,  one  period  in  these  cen- 
turies when  the  life  of  the  West  touched  Japan 
and  then  was  cast  out  while  the  gates  were  shut 
more  securely  than  in  all  the  ages  before.  In  the 
sixteenth  century,  Portuguese  trading  vessels  be- 
gan to  visit  Japan,  where  they  exchanged  Western 
commodities  for  the  products,  then  little  known, 
of  the  Japanese  Islands.  The  Dutch  and  the 
English  followed  the  Portuguese.  The  visitors 
gained  a  good  foothold;  trade  prospered  and  the 
Roman  Catholic  missionaries  both  at  Kioto  and 
throughout  the  country  enrolled  many  converts. 
As  long  as  the  papal  order  confining  the  privilege 
of  evangelizing  Japan  to  the  Jesuits  was  obeyed, 
things  went  favorably  on  the  whole,  but  soon 
some  Spanish  Franciscans  came  from  the  Philip- 
pines and  jealousies  and  suspicious  representa- 
tions added  to  the  indiscreet  statements  of  a 
Spanish  pilot  as  to  the  political  objects  of  the 

178 


Japan 

Jesuits  and  other  missionaries  aroused  the  anger 
of  the  Japanese,  one  of  whose  historians  declares, 
the  missionaries'  ''plan  of  action  was  to  tend  the 
sick  and  relieve  the  poor,  and  so  prepare  the  way 
for  the  reception  of  Christianity,  and  then  to  con- 
vert every  one,  and  to  make  the  sixty-six  prov- 
inces of  Japan  subject  to  Portugal."  This  suspi- 
cion of  Christianity  was  doubtless  confirmed  by 
**the  course  of  events  in  China,  the  jealousy  of 
the  native  priests,  the  control  of  their  converts 
exercised  by  the  missionaries,  the  connection  of 
Christianity  with  trade  and  the  astounding  prog- 
ress made  by  it  in  the  space  of  half  a  century."  * 
And  in  1613  the  edict  of  expulsion  was  issued, 
the  tragedy  of  Shimabara  closing  the  history  in 
1637,  and  30,000  Christians  baptizing  in  blood 
the  new  era  of  revived  nationalism  and  exclu- 
siveness. 

Two  centuries  after  this.  Perry  appeared  in  the 
Bay  of  Yeddo,  and  the  old  days  were  gone  for- 
ever. Within  Japan  forces  had  been  at  work 
preparing  the  land  for  the  new  age.  There  was 
restlessness  against  the  Tokugawa  Shogun's  ex- 
clusivism,  and  four  distinct  movements  were 
under  way  striving  to  effect,  first  ''the  over- 
throw of  the  Shogun  and  his  reduction  to  his 

'  Transactions  of  the  Asiatic  Society  o/Japan,  Vol.  vi.,  No.  i,  p.  21. 

179 


Missions  and  Politics 

proper  level  as  a  vassal;  second,  the  restoration 
of  the  true  Emperor  to  supreme  power;  third, 
the  abolition  of  the  feudal  system  and  a  return  to 
the  ancient  imperial  regime;  fourth,  the  abolition 
of  Buddhism  and  the  establishment  of  pure 
Shinto  as  the  national  faith  and  the  engine  of 
government."  ^  But  while  in  the  minds  of  some, 
these  ends  were  combined  with  a  policy  of  advo- 
cating the  abandonment  of  exclusiveness,  the 
adoption  of  Western  civilization,  and  the  entrance 
of  Japan  into  the  comity  of  nations,  in  the  minds 
of  others  they  were  associated  with  an  intense 
dislike  of  foreigners,  the  expulsion  of  barbarians 
and  the  perpetual  isolation  of  Japan  from  the  rest 
of  the  world.  But  whatever  the  opinions  of  men 
were  with  reference  to  foreign  intercourse,  they 
were  agreed  in  condemning  the  professions  of 
sovereignty  put  forth  by  the  Shogun  in  his  nego- 
tiations with  Commodore  'Perry,  while  Perry's 
coming  fired  the  more  the  imaginations  and  de- 
sires of  those  whcv  wished  no  longer  to  be  shut 
out  from  the  touch  of  human  fellowship  and 
history,  and  these  inner  forces  of  Japan  came  to 
consummation  over  the  question  of  foreign  in- 
tercourse which  Perry's  visit  raised  in  a  new  and 
vivid  form. 

*  Griffis's  The  Mikado's  Empire,  pp.  291,  292. 

180 


Japan 

The  Japanese  writers  mark  three  distinct  stages 
in  their  history  since  Perry's  visit.  'Mn  the  first 
stage,"  says  one  of  them,  "which  may  be  said  to 
extend  from  the  visit  of  the  American  men-of- 
war  at  Uraga  in  1853  to  the  Restoration  of  the 
Imperial  rule  in  1868,  we  were  forced  by  pressure 
from  without  to  open  the  country.  Mobile  and 
versatile  as  our  countrymen  are,  it  required  no 
little  time  for  them  to  recover  from  the  inertia  of 
more  than  200  years.  Those  who  had  the  reins 
of  government  in  their  hands  soon  perceived  the 
utter  impossibility  of  maintaining  the  policy  of 
seclusion  and  proposed  to  acquiesce  in  the  in- 
evitable; but  in  doing  so  they  had  to  meet  the 
resistance  of  irresponsible  and  ignorant  agitators, 
and  the  result  was  the  conviction  which  led  to 
the  fall  of  the  Shogunate. 

'*  With  the  fall  of  the  Shogunate  or  rather  with 
the  establishment  of  the  new  Government,  the 
second  stage  of  our  foreign  intercourse  com- 
menced. Active  participation  now  took  the 
place  of  passive  acquiescence.  Not  only  was  the 
country  opened,  but  Western  civilization  was 
cordially  welcomed  and  assimilated,  indeed,  the 
overthrow  of  the  Tokugawa  regime  is  a  striking 
illustration  of  the  way  in  which  even  seemingly 
adverse  forces  cooperated  to  urge  the  Nation  to- 

181 


Missions  and  Politics 

ward  its  destination.  In  the  beginning,  the 
Tokugawa  Government  favored  opening  the 
country,  while  the  Imperial  Government  at  Kioto 
was  the  centre  of  the  party  hostile  to  foreign  in- 
tercourse. From  this  it  would  appear  that  the 
restoration  of  the  Imperial  rule  was  the  triumph 
of  the  anti-foreign  spirit,  but  such  was  by  no 
means  the  case.  The  Shogunate  fell,  not  because 
of  its  liberal  foreign  policy,  but  because  the  divi- 
sion of  the  country  into  petty  provinces  under  the 
feudal  system,  and  the  existence  of  an  actual 
ruler  by  the  side  of  the  legitimate  sovereign  had 
become  unbearable.  So  long  as  the  Government 
was  concerned  exclusively  with  internal  affairs, 
the  inconsistency  of  the  military  rule  of  the  Sho- 
guns  with  the  rightful  claims  of  the  Emperor 
was  not  manifest,  and  the  people  were  generally 
content.  But  from  the  instant  the  country  came 
into  contact  with  the  outer  world,  the  unification 
of  the  Nation  under  one  intelligible  head  became 
an  absolute  necessity,  and  the  anti-foreign  move- 
ment was  the  chief  agent  in  affecting  this  unifica- 
tion, though  the  agitators  themselves  may  not  have 
been  conscious  of  it.  .  .  .  That  movement, 
after  it  had  once  identified  itself  with  the  cause  of 
loyalty  to  the  legitimate  sovereign,  did  not  stop 
until  the  Shogunate  was  overthrown,  without 

182 


Japan 

reference  to  the  views  entertained  by  its  leaders 
regarding  foreign  policy.  And  (thus)  when  the 
Imperial  authority  had  been  restored,  the  first  act 
of  the  new  Government  was,  perhaps  unexpect- 
edly but  none  the  less  naturally,  to  announce  its 
intention  to  adopt  a  most  liberal  and  progressive 
foreign  policy.  The  Tokugawa  Government 
was  destroyed,  but  the  policy  of  opening  the 
country  survived  the  catastrophe. 

"Since  the  Restoration,  not  only  has  the  coun- 
try been  opened  to  the  world,  but  it  has  striven 
to  take  its  due  rank  among  the  civilized  States. 
It  need  scarcely  be  said,"  continues  the  Japanese 
authority  I  am  quoting,  "that  it  has  been  with 
this  very  purpose  in  view  that  the  barriers  to 
foreign  intercourse  have  been  gradually  removed. 
The  consolidation  of  the  Nation  was  also  of  para- 
mount importance,  and  political  and  social  re- 
forms have  been  chiefly  directed  toward  this  end. 
The  abolition  of  the  feudal  system  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  an  irresistible  centralized  Government 
were  as  a  matter  of  course  needed  for  the  unifi- 
cation of  the  State.  Industrial  enterprises  have 
been  encouraged  as  a  means  of  strengthening  the 
country.  Intellectual  activity  has  been  stimulated, 
that  the  people  might  equip  themselves  with  the 
knowledge  essential  for  competition  with  foreign 

183 


Missions  and  Politics 

nations.  Restraints  on  religious  belief  have  been 
taken  away,  in  order  to  give  a  new  departure  to 
the  moral  life  of  the  people,  adapted  to  the  new 
conditions  growing  out  of  foreign  intercourse. 
Finally,  the  recognition  of  the  rights  of  the 
masses  and  the  progress  of  political  liberty  point 
to  the  appreciation  of  the  fact  that  the  whole 
people,  not  a  particular  class,  must  be  counted  on 
for  the  promotion  of  the  interests  of  the  Na- 
tion,"^ 

This  second  stage  melted  into  the  third  when  in 
1889  the  Emperor  issued  the  constitution,  estab- 
lished a  Parliament,  and  swore  that  "having  by 
virtue  of  the  glories  of  his  ancestors  ascended 
the  throne  of  a  lineal  succession  unbroken  for 
ages  eternal "  he  would  guarantee  and  defend  to 
his  people  the  rights  then  acknowledged.  In  the 
years  that  have  elapsed  since,  the  cry  of  the  land 
has  been  "Greater  Japan,"  "National  expansion," 
"Foreign  intercourse  on  terms  of  equality,"  and 
the  incident  of  the  war  with  China  has  strength- 
ened in  Japan  as  it  has  vindicated  in  the  eyes  of 
many  nations  the  claim  for  foreign  recognition  on 
equal  terms.  In  this  final  result,  the  consumma- 
tion of  the  whole  struggle  and  aspiration  since 
1868  or  1843,  "we  may  safely  say,"  observes  a 

*  The  Far  East,  Vol.  i.,  No.  2,  pp.  1-4. 

184 


Japan 

Japanese  writer,  "that  the  position  obtained  by 
our  country  is  without  precedent.  So  far  as  na- 
tions of  non-European  origin  are  concerned 
.  .  .  it  seems  to  be  left  for  Japan  to  show 
that  the  sphere  of  civilization  may  be  supra  racial. 
In  this  we  have  a  mission.  .  .  .  We  shall 
strive  to  widen  the  range  of  our  common  civiliza- 
tion first  by  assimilating  it,  and  then  by  transmit- 
ting it  to  the  great  body  of  Eastern  countries."  ^ 

But  if  foreign  intercourse  has  been  thus  the 
directing  principle  of  Japanese  history  and  its 
goal  for  fifty  years,  what  gave  the  idea  of  foreign 
intercourse  such  a  hold  upon  the  desires  and  im- 
aginations of  the  people?  Although  much  the 
same  external  influences  played  upon  China, 
China  remained  obdurately  wedded  to  the  old 
idea  of  exclusivism.  What  led  the  two  peoples 
to  choose  divergent  ways?  Undoubtedly  the 
character  and  education  of  the  people.  China 
had  been  trained  for  more  than  two  millenniums 
to  regard  herself  as  the  Middle  Kingdom  to  which 
as  to  Joseph's  sheaf  all  the  others  came  and  made 
obeisance.  She  acknowledged  no  dependence  on 
others  and  no  indebtedness  to  them.  She  had 
originated,  never  borrowed,  save  Buddhism  and 
to  that  she  gave  a  new  character.     As  the  Em- 

*  The  Far  East,  Vol.  i.,  No.  i,  p  «. 
185 


Missions  and  Politics 

peror  Yung  Ching  said  once  to  a  deputation  of 
foreigners,  **  China  will  want  for  nothing  when 
you  cease  to  live  in  it,  and  your  absence  will  not 
cause  it  any  loss."  Or,  as  a  Canton  proclamation 
of  1884  declared: 

"All  dealings  with  foreigners  are  detestable, 
These  men  have  no  father  or  mother, 
Their  offspring  are  beasts." 

Japan  on  the  other  hand  had  received  the  whole 
substance  of  her  learning,  institutions  and  cus- 
toms from  without,  and  her  people  had  the  ca- 
pacity and  the  willingness  to  receive.  Long  cen- 
turies spent  in  adopting  foreign  views  and  ways 
from  the  Continent  had  given  them  the  capacity, 
and  the  traditional  desire  of  the  people  for  what 
is  best  had  fostered  the  willingness.  It  is  this 
character  springing  from  education  and  disposi- 
tion that  has  made  the  Japanese  so  open  to  the 
idea  of  foreign  intercourse.  Some  call  it  their 
fickleness,  especially  when  making  this  compari- 
son which  we  have  just  made  with  the  Chinese; 
but,  as  Dr.  Verbeck,  who  knew  the  people  and 
the  language  as  well  as  any  man,  wrote  shortly 
before  his  death,  "This  charge  of  fickleness  needs 
to  be  qualified.  During  the  feudal  regime,  for 
about  three  centuries,  they  surely  were  sufficiently 
steady  and  conservative.  The  Chinese  as  a  na- 
tion have  not  yet  emerged  from  that  kind  of  stag- 

186 


Japan 

nancy,  whereas  the  Japanese  have  entered  on  the 
path  of  human  progress.  The  present  genera- 
tion of  Japanese  lives  and  moves  in  an  age  of 
change  in  all  departments  of  life,  in  an  age  of 
transition  from  the  old  to  the  new.  In  things 
material  as  well  as  immaterial  they  are  making 
for  something  better  and  something  higher  than 
what  they  were  and  what  they  had  by  heredity 
and  transmission  from  of  old.  The  Japanese  are 
quick-witted  and  apt  to  jump  to  a  conclusion 
without  sufficient  knowledge  or  examination; 
hence  they  readily  enter  upon  a  thing  quite  new 
to  them.  It  does  not  take  them  long  to  find  out 
that  they  have  made  a  mistake,  or  perhaps  they 
are  disappointed  while  at  the  same  time  it  is 
likely  that  another  good  thing  has  attracted  their 
attention.  And  so  they  go  in  for  that,  and  so  on. 
But  by  and  by,  when  they  have  finally  hit  upon 
the  right  thing  they  are  quite  steady  and  often 
splendidly  persevering."  Or,  as  they  themselves 
say,  *'  We  are  bound  to  have  the  best  and  we  will 
try  and  try  until  we  find  it."  While  the  Chinese 
have  said,  *'  We  have  always  had  the  best,  known 
the  best,  and  been  the  best.  We  are  the  best 
now.  To  consider  change  is  disloyalty,  unpa- 
triotism  and  supreme  folly."  So  the  roads  have 
diverged. 

187 


Missions  and  Politics 

On  this  open-minded,  pliable,  receptive  people 
two  tremendous  forces  played.  One  was  the 
pressure  of  Western  civilization  in  trade.  The 
merciless  relentlessness  of  this  I  think  we  little 
appreciate  in  this  land,  and  especially  in  this  at- 
mosphere. The  whole  enginery  and  ingenuity  of 
Western  Nations,  diplomacy,  intimidation, flattery, 
deception,  bribery,  kindness,  enterprise,  friendli- 
ness,— every  known  influence  has  been  used  to 
support  and  enlarge  the  trade  of  the  West.  The 
heroic  figure  of  the  century  in  the  minds  of  Euro- 
peans in  China  and  Japan  is  Sir  Harry  Parkes, 
because  of  the  fearless  audacity  with  which  dur- 
ing a  long  career  he  took  these  Nations  by  the 
throat  and  trained  them  into  respect  for  Western 
trade  and  into  a  willingness  to  buy  the  goods  of 
Birmingham,  Manchester  and  India.  This  intim- 
idation veiled  itself  or  ceased  early  in  Japan, 
but  in  peaceable  and  respectful  ways  continued 
to  press  the  Japanese  people  with  almost  irresisti- 
ble power  into  fuller  contact  and  larger  dealings 
with  the  trading  peoples  of  the  West. 

But  it  may  be  questioned  whether  the  other 
force  was  not  even  mightier  than  this ; — the  senti- 
ment of  progress,  of  desire  for  recognition,  and 
for  the  possession  of  those  elements  on  which 
equal  intercourse  was  supposed  to  depend.     And 

188 


Japan 

it  may  be  maintained  that  it  was  in  Christianity 
and  the  influence  of  Christianity  that  the  senti- 
mental forces  as  contrasted  with  the  sordid,  cul- 
minated, and  were  brought  to  bear  most  practic- 
ally upon  the  efforts  and  ideals  of  the  Nation.  It 
was  under  the  impact  of  Christianity  upon  the 
people  that  the  first  impulses  of  the  new  national 
life  were  shaped.  Scarcely  any  one  had  a  greater 
influence  upon  these  than  Yokoi,  the  chief  coun- 
sellor of  the  Lord  of  Echizen,  who  was  a  member 
of  the  new  cabinet  formed  by  the  Emperor  in 
1868,  on  the  fall  of  the  Shogunate.  The  five 
articles  which  the  Mikado  then  took  oath  to  en- 
force were  proposed  by  one  of  Yokoi's  disciples. 
I.  The  formation  of  a  Congress  or  deliberative 
body,  2.  The  decision  of  Government  measures 
according  to  public  opinion.  3.  Abolition  of  un- 
civilized customs.  4.  Impartiality  and  justice 
displayed  in  nature  to  be  made  the  basis  of 
action.  5.  Intellect  and  learning  to  be  sought  for 
throughout  the  whole  world  to  establish  the  Em- 
pire. These  ideas  Yokoi  had  imbibed  from  the 
American  constitution  and  institutions,  and  from 
the  Bible,  a  copy  of  which  in  Chinese  he  had  got 
from  the  missionaries  in  Shanghai.  Before  he 
had  seen  a  missionary  in  Japan,  when  there  were 

no  Christians  of  whom  he  knew  and  no  church, 
189 


Missions  and  Politics 

Yokoi  wrote  to  a  friend,  "In  a  few  years  Chris- 
tianity will  come  to  Japan  and  capture  the  hearts 
of  the  best  young  men."  Before  his  assassina- 
tion in  1869,  because  of  his  sympathy  with 
Christianity,  he  had  proposed  the  elevation  to 
citizenship  of  the  outcast  Etas,  had  pled  for  free- 
dom of  speech  and  press,  and  the  equalization  of 
taxation,  and  had  sown  the  seeds  of  the  great 
ideas  which  were  settled  in  1889  in  the  present 
constitution  of  Japan. 

If  this  is  assigning  too  great  influence  to  Yokoi, 
it  is  not  to  Christianity.  **  New  Japan,"  declares 
one  of  the  most  sober  foreigners  in  the  Empire, 
*'is  largely  a  product  of  Christian  influences." 
While  Western  science  and  art,  home  politics 
and  journalism,  foreign  travel  and  commerce, 
manufactures  and  industries  on  foreign  lines  were 
in  their  infancy  and  had  attracted  the  attention  of 
few  people;  when  there  was  barely  yet  an  idea  of 
an  Imperial  Parliament,  political  parties  had  not  yet 
been  organized,  army  and  navy  had  no  existence, 
there  were  no  railroads  or  steamboat  companies, 
few  newspapers,  and  when  foreign  diplomatic 
relations  came  within  the  scope  of  but  a  few  of- 
ficials, and  the  minds  of  the  people  were  open 
and  free  of  all  preoccupation,  while  a  great  com- 
pany of  Samurai,  stranded  by  the  fall  of  feudal- 

190 


Japan 

ism  were  waiting  for  the  touch  of  a  new  interest, 
Christianity  swept  a  hand  over  the  chords  of  the 
national  heart,  sounded  a  call  to  the  people  to 
enter  the  great  Christian  brotherhood,  and  prom- 
ised in  Christianity  the  forces  that  would  make 
the  Nation  anew  and  secure  its  entrance  into  the 
councils  of  the  civilized  peoples.  Doubtless  the 
personal  response  to  Christianity  as  a  message  of 
individual  cleansing  and  redemption  was  com- 
paratively slight;  but  the  Nation  thrilled  at  it  as 
the  summons  and  invitation  of  civilization,  and 
under  its  influence  its  new  life  took  shape. 
Japan  set  about  the  absorption  of  the  institutions 
of  Christendom,  postal,  legal,  political.  Even 
their  old  calendar  was  given  up  and  the  Gre- 
gorian calendar  of  Christendom  adopted,  and  the 
Christian  Sunday  made  a  rest  day  for  all  officials 
and  for  the  teachers  and  officers  of  the  public 
schools.  ''The  personal  influence  of  Christian 
statesmen  of  America,  England  or  Germany," 
wrote  Dr.  Gordon,^  ''over  Japanese  statesmen 
has  been  deeply  felt  and  acknowledged.  It  is, 
for  example,  an  open  secret  that  when  Count 
Ito,  who  afterward  framed  the  national  constitu- 
tion, visited  Germany,  he  was  remarkably  af- 
fected by  the  evidently  sincere  declarations  of  the 

'  Gordon's  An  American  Missionary  in  Japan,  pp.  228,  231. 

191 


Missions  and  Politics 

Emperor  William  and  Prince  Bismarck  that  the 
Christian  religion  is  essential  to  the  prosperity  of 
Japan.  .  .  .  Not  only  the  public  men  and  in- 
stitutions of  Christendom,  but  the  private  home 
life  of  Christian  families  also,  has  profoundly  im- 
pressed Japanese  students  and  others  visiting  the 
Occident.  The  influence  of  Christian  books  has 
been  incalculable,  (such  as)  Wayland's  '  Moral 
Philosophy, '  Northend's  *  Teacher  and  Parent, '  and 
Dr.  Wines's  writings  on  penology  (for  example). 
.  .  .  Christian  civilization  has  achieved  and  is 
achieving  a  great  victory  physically,  intellectually 
and  morally,"  in  Japan.  Especially  marked  v^as 
this  victory  in  the  establishment  of  the  present 
educational  system.  Christian  men  from  America 
organized  it,  established  the  great  University  at 
Tokyo,  and  inspired  the  first  Imperial  Educational 
Rescript  in  1872,  which  declared:  "Although 
learning  is  essential  to  success  in  life  for  all  classes 
of  men,  yet  for  farmers,  artisans  and  merchants 
and  for  women  it  was  regarded  as  beyond  their 
sphere;  and  even  among  the  upper  classes  aim- 
less discussions  and  vain  styles  of  composition 
only  were  cultivated.  Much  poverty  and  failure 
in  life  is  owing  but  to  these  mistaken  views.  It 
is  intended  that  henceforth  education  shall  be  so 
diffused  that  there  may  not  be  a  village  with  an 

192 


Japan 

ignorant  family,  nor  a  family  with  an  ignorant 
member.  "v.x 

In  this  way  the  new  Nation  and  its  institutions 
were  established.  Viscount  Mori  Arinori  pro- 
posed that  English  should  become  the  language 
of  Japan.  And  even  men  who  were  not  mission- 
aries soberly  suggested  that  Japan  might  become 
Christian  by  Imperial  Edict  any  day.  Professor 
Chamberlain  did  so.^  And  as  for  the  mission- 
aries, only  ten  years  ago  they  sent  out  an  appeal 
containing  these  words:  ''This  then  is  our  op- 
portunity; such  an  opportunity  as  the  Modern 
Church  has  never  had  vouchsafed  to  it.  A  cen- 
tury ago-  was  heard  once  more  a  divine  voice  say- 
ing, 'Go  teach  all  nations.'  And  men  asked, 
'  Whither  shall  we  go  ? '  To-day  a  man  stands 
upon  the  shore  of  Japan  crying,  Come  over 
into  Asia  and  help  us.  And  we  must  go  now. 
.  .  .  Other  nations  may  wait.  .  .  .  This 
course  will  go  far  toward  ending  our  work 
in  the  Empire.  ...  By  the  close  of  the 
century  .  .  .  Foreign  Missions  may  give  way 
to  Home  Missions.  ...  So  far  as  we  are 
concerned,  the  Gospel  of  the  Kingdom  will  have 
been  preached  as  a  witness  in  Japan.    And  when 

*  Chamberlain's  Things  Japanese.    Art.  Missions,  p.  241. 
193 


Missions  and  Politics 

that  is  done  the  Church  at  home  will  be  free  to 
go  elsewhere." 

Thus  in  our  day,  or  literally  in  one  generation, 
a  nation  was  to  be  born  out  of  Confucian  feudal- 
ism and  Buddhist  hopelessness  into  English  civi- 
lization and  Christian  life.  Has  it  been  ?  What 
is  Japan  to-day  ?  With  what  are  we  reckoning 
when  we  deal  with  the  Japanese  in  the  present 
politics  which  are  rolling  out  in  unchangeable 
history  so  fast  behind  us  ?  Let  us  try  to  answer 
these  questions. 

A  member  of  one  of  the  legations  said  to  me, 
''We  have  always  had  confidence  in  the  states- 
men who  really  guide  Japan,  and  nothing  has 
occurred  to  shake  our  confidence  in  them.  They 
are  level-headed,  sober  and  modest,  knowing  that 
they  have  a  great  deal  to  learn,  plenty  of  neces- 
sary growth  before  them,  and  a  big  problem  on 
their  hands."  That  these  men  make  their  mis- 
takes of  judgment,  including  moral  judgment,  is 
natural,  but  those  who  have  the  best  opportunity 
to  judge,  believe  that  they  want  to  do  what  in 
the  courts  of  civilization  would  be  regarded  as 
honorable  and  right.  Such  testimony  should  be 
accepted.  And  in  a  sense  these  men  are  the  real 
Japan.  They  are  the  authoritative  voice  of  the 
country  to  the  Nations  without,  and  they  guide 

1!J4 


Japan 

and  restrain  as  well  as  they  can  the  Nation  within ; 
but  in  a  sense  they  are  not  the  real  Japan.  It  is 
not  their  spirit  that  is  the  assertive  spirit  of 
the  Nation.  Neither  is  it  the  spirit  of  the  great 
mass  of  the  people  which  represents  the  real 
Japan.  Of  this  great  mass,  constituting  seven- 
eighths  of  the  population,  perhaps  the  vast  major- 
ity are  unaffected  by  the  rapid  ebb  and  flow  of 
public  opinion,  and  retain  the  olden  spirit  or  sim- 
ply follow  their  leaders.  The  class  that  is  con- 
stantly expressing  itself  on  the  platform  and  in 
the  press,  and  in  public  and  private  life  is  be- 
tween these  extremes,  and  constitutes  the  Japan 
that  is  seen  and  felt  and  to  be  dealt  with.  It  is 
broken  up  into  parties  and  schools,  but  it  can  be 
broadly  characterized. 

First:  Industrialism  is  undoubtedly  the  chief 
note  of  its  present  spirit.  At  first  Western  civi- 
lization seemed  to  consist  in  the  external  forms 
and  these  were  absorbed.  Then  it  was  thought 
to  lie  in  education  and  religion,  and  it  was  held 
that  only  as  a  Christian  nation  would  Japan  be 
admitted  to  the  circle  of  civilization.  Then  polit- 
ical institutions  must  be  adapted  to  those  of  the 
West.  Armaments  and  the  spirit  of  war  fol- 
lowed, and  the  secret  was  supposed  to  lie  in 
them ;  but  at  last  the  real  basis  of  civilization  has 

195 


Missions  and  Politics 

been  found,  and  without  surrendering  any  of  her 
other  discoveries  except  her  desire  for  the  foreign 
religion,  Japan  has  launched  out  into  commercial- 
ism with  an  energy  and  enthusiasm  that  are  mar- 
vellous. Since  1886  her  exports  have  trebled  and 
her  imports  quadrupled.  In  the  same  time  the 
value  of  the  machinery  imported  annually  has  in- 
creased tenfold,  and  the  available  horse-power 
of  the  machinery  in  the  country  from  1,105  in 
1884,  to  29,493  in  1891,  and  61,252  in  1895.  In 
the  last  ten  years  prices  have  risen  fifty  per  cent., 
and  during  the  last  six  months,  since  the  adop- 
tion of  the  gold  standard,  have  risen  higher  still. 
'*The  predominant  trait  of  the  day  is  industrial- 
ism," said  a  leading  Japanese  to  us,  **the  aristoc- 
racy of  money.  The  trader  used  to  be  despised. 
He  was  below  the  artisan  and  the  farmer.  Now 
in  the  estimation  of  the  people  the  great  merchant 
is  above  officials.  .  .  .  The  people  are  mad 
for  money  to  spend  on  food,  drink  and  pleasure. 
We  are  becoming  a  grasping  Nation."  ' '  No, "  said 
others,  "  the  Nation  sees  that  wealth  is  the  secret 
of  national  power.  We  would  be  a  great  Nation. 
To  be  a  great  Nation  we  must  be  rich."  This 
materialistic  spirit  fills  the  land  now.  As  evi- 
dence, while  we  were  in  Japan,  there  appeared 
an  article  on  America's  Opportunity  in  Japan  in  a 


Japan 

Japanese  magazine,  containing  these  statements: 
''There  is  nothing  that  country  (of  America)  is 
unable  to  buy  or  undertake  from  lack  of  funds. 
Their  eyes  are  widely  open  to  money  making;  to 
them  money  making  is  the  standard  of  every- 
thing. Carlyle's  sarcasm  on  the  English  people 
*  whose  hell  is  the  want  of  money  or  the  failure 
to  make  money '  is  very  true  of  the  American 
people,  and  there  is  a  certain  charm  in  that. 
They  are  eager  to  make  money  and  to  enrich  the 
country,  hence  there  are  magnificent  educational 
and  charitable  institutions  and  industrial  prog- 
ress. Doubtless  it  is  this  money-making  spirit 
that  made  America  what  it  is  now.  .  .  .  The 
Japanese  spirit  of  looking  ahead  and  grasping  the 
newest  things  in  the  world  cannot  be  satisfied 
elsewhere  so  well  as  in  America.  To-day,  which- 
ever way  we  may  turn  we  can  see  the  influence 
of  American  progress  stamped  in  the  Japanese 
material  civilization.  Then  remembering  this 
fact,  if  Americans  will  concentrate  their  time, 
interest  and  money  that  they  have  to  spare  to 
Japan,  in  the  commercial,  industrial  and  agricul- 
tural lines,  they  will  give  a  lasting  and  permanent 
influence  to  Japan,  and  one  that  will  be  more 
beneficial  to  them  than  the  missionaries'  attempt 
to  save  souls  (here)  and  to  give  them  the  promise 

197 


Missions  and  Politics 

of  bliss  in  heaven  hereafter."^  It  will  be  evident 
that  the  missionaries  are  not  the  only  American 
influence  at  work  in  Japan.  It  is  interesting  to 
note  also  that  the  writer  of  these  baldly  mate- 
rialistic lines,  Watari  Kitashima,  was  nourished 
in  the  bosom  of  the  American  Church,  having 
been  graduated  from  Allegheny  College  and  the 
Meadville  Theological  Seminary  of  the  Methodist 
Church.  The  dollar  is  to  be  the  new  deity  of 
Japan.  The  long  talk  about  an  eclectic  and 
adapted  religion,  the  freshest  child  of  progress, 
has  at  last  come  to  fruition  in  a  coin. 

Second:  "National  pride,  a  false  sense  of 
honor  as  individuals  and  as  a  Nation  is  the  second 
characteristic  of  the  present  spirit  of  Japan,"  said 
one  of  the  Japanese  I  have  already  quoted.  "The 
war  with  China  led  to  a  great  development  of 
this,  but  its  real  source  was  in  Confucianism  fos- 
tered but  modified  by  our  feudal  system."  Some 
expressions  of  this  exaltation  of  sense  of  mission 
and  of  national  self-esteem  must  be  given.  It 
was  especially  evident,  of  course,  in  connection 
with  the  war.  One  Japanese  wrote  in  The  Japan 
Mail,  "Some  15,000,000  of  helpless  souls  kept 
ignorant  and  defenceless  to  satisfy  the  jealousy  of 
the  world's  most  backward  nation!    Could  this 

•  The  Far  East,  Vol.  ii.,  No.  6,  pp.  255-258. 
198 


Japan 

be  borne  by  lovers  of  freedom  and  reverers  of 
human  rights  ?  Japan's  victory  shall  mean  free 
government,  free  education  and  free  commerce 
for  600,000,000  souls  that  live  on  this  side  of  the 
globe.  The  war  we  have  entered  on  is  a  right- 
eous war."  I  suppose  that  in  literal  fact,  no  war 
was  ever  prepared  for  so  perfectly,  so  uninter- 
ruptedly, with  such  cool  selfishness.  Now  that 
the  war  is  over,  and  its  civilizing  schemes  have 
collapsed  so  ignominiously,  the  Japanese  are  still 
full  of  plans  for  the  civilization  of  Asia,  and  a 
foremost  place  among  the  nations.  A  leading 
article  in  the  Kokiwtm-no-Tomo' s  English  edi- 
tion says,  "When  we  find  something  more  ad- 
vanced or  better  than  what  we  have,  we  do  not 
hesitate  to  throw  away  and  grasp  at  the  other. 
The  miraculous  progress  of  modern  japan  is  at- 
tributable to  this  disposition.  She  has  not  only 
appropriated  the  Occidental  civilization,  but  also 
modified  or  rather  improved  it  in  some  respects 
by  means  of  Oriental  ideas.  In  commerce,  in  in- 
dustry, in  art,  in  science,  nay  in  every  respect,  we 
have  been  showing  that  we  as  a  Nation  are  not  a 
bit  less  gifted  than  our  Western  friends.  .  .  . 
Their  admiration  is  now  changing  into  awe.  See 
how  closely  the  so-called  civilized  nations  are  fol- 
lowing our  post-bellum  measures,  such  as  the 

199 


Missions  and  Politics 

protection  of  the  mercantile  marine,  the  encour- 
agement of  manufacturing  industries,  and  the 
enlarged  schemes  of  our  army  and  navy !  Some 
of  them  are  guarding  against  our  armament,  and 
others  are  warning  against  our  commerce  and  in- 
dustry, and  others  are  hopelessly  casting  an  evil 
eye  upon  us.  An  anti-Japanese  sentiment  is 
peeping  out  in  everything  and  everywhere.  No 
doubt  the  world  is  not  destined  to  be  the  exclus- 
ive theatre  of  the  white  actors.  The  Creator,  if 
there  be  a  Creator,  did  not  create  the  other  races 
to  be  permanently  employed  as  mere  waiters  or 
slaves  of  the  white  races.  It  is  the  grandest  mis- 
sion of  the  children  of  the  Rising  Sun  to  preach 
that  the  world  was  made  for  all  and  not  for  a 
limited  number  of  races  or  nations.  .  .  , 
Thus  we  see  that  it  is  not  the  *  Asiatic '  but  the 
Japanese  ascendency  that  the  Americans  fear. 
.  .  .  The  chief  motive  that  led  the  Americans 
to  undertake  the  annexation  (of  the  Sandwich 
Islands)  is  the  anxiety  about  the  Asiatic  ascend- 
ency." Count  Okuma,  the  new  Prime  Minister, 
in  a  public  speech  some  time  ago,  went  even 
further  than  this,  declaring  *'  The  European  Pow- 
ers are  already  showing  symptoms  of  decay  and 
the  next  century  will  see  their  constitutions  shat- 
tered and  their  empires  in  ruins.     Even  if  this 

200 


Japan 

should  not  quite  happen,  their  resources  will  have 
become  exhausted  in  unsuccessful  attempts  at 
colonization.  Therefore,  who  is  fit  to  be  their 
proper  successors  if  not  ourselves  ?  ...  If 
treaty  revision  were  completed,  and  Japan  com- 
pletely victorious  over  China,  we  should  become 
one  of  the  chief  Powers  of  the  world,  and  no 
Power  could  engage  in  any  movement  without 
first  consulting  us.  Japan  could  then  enter  into 
competition  with  Europe  as  the  representative  of 
the  Oriental  races."  ^  Another  writer  goes  even 
further,  and  suggests  that  Japan  is  to  be  the  Sa- 
vior of  the  United  States.  "What  patriotic 
American,"  he  asks,  "fails  to  see  that  the  Nation 
which  introduced  Japan  to  the  world  needs  recre- 
ation as  well .?  .  .  .  An  influence  akin  to  that 
reflected  across  the  Atlantic,  may  reach  America 
across  the  Pacific,  and  much  of  demagogism, 
mammonism  and  rummism,  together  with  dis- 
sensions in  religion  may  lose  their  power  by  such 
an  influence."  Here  and  there  a  protest  is  raised 
against  this  flood  of  inflation,  but  in  many  cases 
these  protests  are  born  of  self-satisfaction  and 
self-assurance,  and  it  is  not  unjust  to  characterize 
the  present  spirit  of  the  Nation  as  one  of  unmiti- 
gated conceit.     "The  great  need  of  Young  Ja- 

'  Norman's  Peoples  and  Politics  of  the  Far  East,  p.  392. 

201 


Missions  and  Politics 

pan,"  said  one  foreign  resident,  *' is  the  applica- 
tion at  each  meal  of  an  efficient  spanking  ma- 
chine." 

Third:  Commercial  and  conceited,  Japan  is 
made  with  militarism.  It  surpasses  even  Russia 
and  Germany.  The  spirit  of  arms  is  nourished 
from  one  end  of  Japan  to  the  other.  It  fills  the 
schools,  which  are  drilled  and  marched  from  the 
lowest  grades.  The  youngsters  have  wooden 
guns.  The  larger  boys  are  regularly  armed. 
They  may  be  seen  almost  daily  on  their  parade 
grounds  at  drill,  chanting  the  national  anthem  as 
they  march,  countermarch  and  charge.  **Her 
educational  system,"  says  Lafcadio  Hearn,^  *Ms 
an  enormous  drilling  machine."  The  school  girls 
cry  aloud  to  the  war  spirit,  one  of  their  papers 
bursting  forth,  "Yamato  warriors!  We  praise 
you!  You  who  never  flinched  in  times  of  great- 
est danger,  nor  fled  from  the  enemy,  but  gladly 
sacrificed  your  lives  for  the  cause  of  the  Emperor 
and  your  own  country.  What  hardships  you  en- 
dured as  you  made  your  toilsome  way,  bare- 
footed, through  snow  and  ice,  while  bitter  cold 
winds  penetrated  your  clothing.  Japan  must  be- 
come great;  she  must  become  the  light  of  the 
Eastern  world ;  her  future  is  the  future  of  all  Ori- 

*  Hearn's  Kokoro,  p.  96. 

202 


Japan 

ental  Nations,  and  upon  her  civilization  their  civ- 
ilization depends.  The  peace  of  our  Nation  is  the 
peace  of  the  Eastern  world,  and  any  nation  inter- 
fering with  that  peace  is  an  enemy  that  must  be 
crushed.  .  .  .  For  that  reason  alone  have  our 
brave  warriors  shed  their  blood  upon  the  battle- 
field." ^  The  army  now  numbers  nearly  300,000, 
and  the  plan  is  to  double  it  by  1902,  and  to  have 
the  navy  doubled  by  1906.  Already  there  are  as 
many  officers  in  the  Japanese  standing  army  as 
we  have  hitherto  had  private  soldiers  in  ours. 

Fourth :  The  spirit  of  nationalism  has  grown 
more  intense  as  the  years  have  passed,  and  breaks 
out  now  and  then  in  sharp  anti-foreign  feeling 
which  the  long  delay  of  Western  Nations  in  sur- 
rendering their  rights  of  extra-territoriality  has^ 
embittered.  Anti-foreign  feeling  rests  either  on 
the  sense  of  supreme  superiority  as  in  China,  or  on 
the  sense  of  inferiority,  or  on  the  idea  that  a  nation 
is  regarded  as  inferior  by  others.  Both  of  these 
latter  grounds  exist  in  Japan,  as  the  Jijt  Shimpo, 
Mr.  Fukuzawa's  paper,  frankly  acknowledges: 
*  *  Japan  must  make  up  her  mind  to  let  go  the  old  and 
open  her  hands  unreservedly  to  the  new  .  .  . 
abolishing  everything  that  tends  to  preserve  racial 
prejudices,  and  thereby  to  handicap  her  in  the 

^  Kwasiui  Quarterly^  Aug.  i,  1896. 

203 


Missions  and  Politics 

struggle  toward  progress."  Many  have  a  lurking 
sense  of  the  inferiority  the  Jiji  avows.  Irritation 
is  unavoidable. 

In  the  present  temper  of  the  Japanese  mind  the 
spirit  of  national  assertiveness  is  of  necessity  the 
spirit  of  foreign  antagonism,  for  it  is  not  an  as- 
sertiveness as  toward  an  ideal  she  is  striving  to 
realize,  but  a  struggle  for  the  recognition  she 
wishes  to  receive  from  Western  Nations.  Her 
ideals  are  second  hand.  For  a  while  this  foreign 
antagonism  was  simply  psychological  or  an  idea 
in  politics.  Since  the  China  War  it  has  been 
translated  into  ships  and  guns  and  army  corps. 
These  have  no  internal  meaning.  The  young 
men  say  they  are  meant  for  Russia^  and  the 
great  struggle  that  must  come,  but  the  spirit  of 
the  young  men  is  hot  and  precipitous  in  Japan. 
At  any  rate,  nationalism,  or  anti-foreign  feeling 
— its  synonym — is  now  embodied  in  iron  and 
flesh,  and  waits. 

Toward  civilization  stripped  of  all  personal  and 
national  relations,  no  force  in  Japan  save  the  old 
religions  opposes  itself  now;  but  toward  the  na- 
tional and  personal  forms  in  which  civilization  is 
and  has  to  be  met  there  cannot  but  be  an  unrest- 
ful  feeling.     For  Japan  herself  is  not  civilized  yet, 

'  Hearn's  Kokoro,  p.  io8. 

204 


Japan 

if  we  accept  at  all  as  we  must,  such  a  definition 
of  civilization  as  Chief  Justice  Russell  gave  at  the 
American  Bar  Association's  meeting  in  1896,  "By 
its  fruits  you  shall  know  it.  It  is  not  dominion, 
wealth,  material  luxury;  nay,  not  even  a  great 
literature  and  education  wide-spread,  good  as 
these  things  be.  Civilization  is  not  a  veneer;  it 
must  penetrate  to  the  very  heart  and  core  of  so- 
cieties of  men.  Its  true  signs  are  thought  for  the 
poor  and  suffering,  chivalrous  regard  and  respect 
for  woman,  the  frank  recognition  of  human 
brotherhood,  irrespective  of  race  or  color,  or  na- 
tion or  religion,  the  narrowing  of  the  domain  of 
mere  force  as  a  governing  factor  in  the  world, 
the  love  of  ordered  freedom,  abhorrence  of  what 
is  mean  and  cruel  and  vile,  ceaseless  devotion  to 
the  claims  of  justice."  Few  of  these  signs  are 
evident  in  Japan  yet.  Indeed  such  a  definition 
condemns  many  of  our  Western  Nations.  While 
Japan  has  become  a  nation  of  strength  and  of 
position,  the  change  though  a  real  and  a  perma- 
nent change,  is  not  a  moral  and  vital  change  in 
such  a  sense  as  to  entitle  the  Nation  to  be  called 
civilized.  And  all  comparison  with  other  peoples 
shows  her  this,  or  shows  her  that  other  peoples 
think  this,  which  amounts  to  the  same  thing  for 

the  purpose. 

205 


Missions  and  Politics 

And  now  fifthly,  the  two  things  most  needed 
by  Japan  in  this  emergency  are  most  conspicu- 
ously lacking.  One  is  a  solid  morality.  The 
Japan  Mail  charges  that  the  native  papers  do 
not  hesitate  to  misrepresent  facts.  A  foreigner 
of  some  years  residence,  writing  in  a  Japanese 
magazine  says:  "As  viewed  by  foreigners  Ja- 
pan has  no  commercial  morality,  no  business 
character."  The  last  census  reports  for  1895 
365,633  marriages  and  110,838  divorces.  Many 
declare  that  they  do  not  know  one  Japanese 
whom  they  would  trust  to  teach  ethics  in  a 
school,  because  of  distorted,  ingrained  ideas  of 
honor,  truth  and  falsehood,  relations  and  position 
of  woman,  etc.  Japanese  scholars  even  contend 
that  Oriental  morality  "avoids  the  vagueness  that 
characterizes  Christian  teaching"  and  is  distinctly 
superior  to  Christian  morality.  The  other  great 
need  is,  a  pure  and  reasonable  religion.  How 
soon  Japan  forgot  her  initial  leaning  to  Christian- 
ity, how  superior  the  new  Japan  has  been  to  any 
sense  of  this  need,  and  how  great  the  need  is,  are 
all  illustrated  by  the  now  familiar  words  of  Mar- 
quis Ito  in  an  interview  in  the  London  Daily 
News:  "I  think  most  of  the  educated  Japanese 
prefer  to  live  by  reason,  science  and  the  evidence 
of  their  senses.     I  have  secured  absolute  tolera- 

206 


Japan 

tion  for  all  religions,  and  to  a  certain  extent  I 
would  encourage  a  spirit  of  religion,  but  I  regard 
religion  itself  as  quite  unnecessary  for  a  nation's 
life.  Science  is  far  above  superstition,  and 
what  is  any  religion.  Buddhism  or  Christianity, 
but  superstition,  and  therefore  a  possible  source 
of  weakness  to  a  nation  ?"  As  over  against  this 
madness  two  Japanese  papers  may  be  quoted: 
The  Kohumin  Shimbiin,  "Great  crimes  are  be- 
coming more  frequent.  Cases  come  under  our 
notice  daily.  The  country  feels  keenly  the  ne- 
cessity of  morality  and  religion.  Those  who 
have  hitherto  attached  themselves  only  to  a  ma- 
terialistic form  of  civilization  and  believed  gold 
to  possess  almighty  power,  have  now  begun  to 
rely  on  religion  for  the  preservation  of  social 
morality.  .  .  .  It  is  almost  safe  to  conclude 
that  the  whole  Nation  feels  the  necessity  of  reli- 
gion. We  ourselves  have  no  connection  with  re- 
ligious parties  (How  characteristically  Japanese!) 
but  we  do  firmly  believe  that  religion  is  absolutely 
necessary  to  society,  and  that  along  with  material- 
istic progress  spiritual  progress  must  go  hand  in 
hand.  We  are  not  at  all  sorry,  therefore,  that 
the  country  has  begun  to  feel  the  necessity  of  re- 
ligion." And  The  Yoroiti  Choho,  "Japan's  case 
is  that  of  Christian  civilization  without  Christian- 

207 


Missions  and  Politics 

jty.  She  is  aiming  at  a  definite  form  of  orga- 
nization without  the  life  that  organized  it.  The 
peculiar  awkwardness  of  her  present  position  is 
due  to  her  hopeless  attempt  to  assimilate  the  new 
civilization  to  her  old  ideals."  Another  paper 
speaks  of  *'the  spiritual  disease  of  our  people." 
Unfortunately  all  of  these,  while  containing  an 
element  of  prophecy  are,  in  the  main,  academic 
meditations.  The  editor  who  deems  religion 
necessary  for  the  Nation  does  not  intend  to  make 
any  personal  application.  The  Japan  which  I 
am  describing  is  most  adroit  at  diagnosing  itself; 
but  it  is  without  a  religion  and  without  any  fixed 
body  of  principles,  eager  after  science,  facts  and 
ideas,  but  wanting  any  moral  foundations,  fast 
losing  even  its  old  virtue  of  reverence.  **  Bud- 
dhism has  reached  the  height  of  corruption  and 
has  no  influence  among  the  upper  classes.  Shin- 
toism  retains  only  a  feeble  influence.  Christian- 
ity which  was  once  rather  powerful,  has  lately 
become  more  or  less  lifeless,"  adds  one  of  the 
papers  I  have  quoted. 

Yet,  though  I  have  made  this  quotation  in  sup- 
port of  what  has  been  said  about  religion  in 
Japan,  I  do  not  believe  that  any  one  of  its  three 
statements  is  true.  Buddhism  is  denounced  as 
doomed.     So  it  is,   but  distantly.     In  the  five 

208 


Japan 

years  preceding  the  last  census,  the  Buddhist 
preachers  and  priests  increased  from  <^},2^}  to 
101,839,  while  the  Shinto  preachers  increased 
from  69, 300  to  98, 45 1 .  In  no  other  land  we  visited 
did  Buddhism  seem  to  have  the  hold  it  had  in 
Japan.  Nowhere  else  were  there  such  temples, 
so  steadily  thronged,  so  gloriously  decorated,  so 
filled  with  priests,  so  supported  by  ecclesiastical 
colleges,  with  the  idols  so  venerated,  the  offer- 
ings of  money  so  profuse.  Nowhere  else  did  we 
meet  priests  so  well  informed,  so  adroit  in  apolo- 
getic, so  well  armed  in  advance  against  the  points 
of  special  strength  in  Christianity.  The  sister  of 
the  Empress  is  the  wife  of  a  Shin  Shiu  Buddhist 
priest,  and  all  through  society  the  relations  of  the 
people  to  Buddhism  are  close.  The  social  life 
of  the  Nation  is  intershot  with  it,  and  it  is  work- 
ing with  great  ingenuity,  with  imitation  of  Chris- 
tian methods,  and  with  almost  as  great  readiness 
to  compromise  and  adapt  as  it  showed  when  it 
came  to  Japan  thirteen  hundreds  years  ago.  And 
the  chief  incentives  in  this  Buddhist  revival  are 
found  in  the  nationalistic  feelings  already  de- 
scribed. ''The  religions  which  are  back  of  the 
evils  imbedded  in  the  social  life  of  the  country 
are  made  to  appear  synonomous  with  the  most 
sacred  and  time-honored  institutions  of  the  land, 

209 


Missions  and  Politics 

the  very  basis  of  loyalty  to  the  throne  itself."* 
This  ground  is  taken  especially  in  the  interests 
of  Shintoism,  the  distinctly  national  cult,  which 
looks  back  hazily  to  the  dimly  seen  gods  of  old, 
and  reduces  itself  practically  to  an  ambiguous 
worship  of  the  imperial  idea  personified  in  the 
Emperor. 

"Is  it  possible,"  asks  a  writer  in  one  Japanese 
magazine,  *'to  reconcile  the  idea  of  the  sacred- 
ness  of  the  Japanese  Emperor  with  the  doctrine 
of  Christianity  which  teaches  that  Christ  is  the 
supreme  Governor  of  all  things,  both  visible  and 
invisible  ? 

*'Is  it  not  against  the  very  Constitution  of 
Japan  to  recognize  supreme  beings  such  as  a 
God,  a  Jesus,  a  Pope,  a  Church  or  a  Bible,  other 
than  the  sovereign  of  the  country  ? 

"  Do  Christians  mean  to  regard  Jesus  as  a  faith- 
ful subject  of  the  Japanese  Emperor,  or  do  they 
mean  to  bring  down  the  latter  under  the  rule  of 
the  former  so  that  he  might  offer  the  prayer  say- 
ing, 'Jesus,  the  Son  of  God,  have  mercy  upon 
me'?"=^ 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  popular  opinion  is  without 

'  Seventeenth  Report  of  the  Council  of  Missions  Cooperating  with  the 
Church  of  Christ  in  Japan,  p.  lo. 

"Qpoted  by  the  Rev.  J.  H.  De  Forest,  D.  D.,  in  The  Independent,  Feb.  lo, 
1S98,  pp.  5,  6. 

210 


Japan 

anchorage,  without  fixed  principles.  The  real 
old  religions  have  lost  their  hold  on  the  educated, 
but  they  have  been  metamorphosed  so  as  to 
justify  their  use  by  the  educated  as  vantage 
ground  from  which  to  work  for  nationalism  and 
this  use  has  reacted  to  revive  the  old  religions  in 
their  old  form  among  the  common  people.  In 
the  absence  of  any  solid  principles  those  who 
have  really  lost  faith  are  clutching  at  all  things. 
Eclecticism  gone  mad  runs  through  their  books 
and  papers.  All  the  lessons  of  history  are  thrown 
away,  and  having  absolutely  no  guiding  moral 
principles,  men  gather  all  sorts  of  truths,  half 
truths  and  falsehoods  together  and  out  of  them 
try  to  make  something  that  they  can  call  Japanese, 
and  that  will  serve  as  that  religion  whose  absolute 
necessity  they  will  be  forced  to  see,  yes,  are  even 
now  discovering  for  themselves.  The  abyss  of  a 
French  Revolution  will  never  open  in  Japan. 

Why  was  it  that  Christianity  which  started 
with  such  bright  prospects  has  not  already  be- 
come the  religion  of  the  whole  Nation  ?  Twenty 
years  ago  the  churches  were  thronged,  the  mis- 
sionaries were  overrun  and  some  of  them  almost 
adored;  the  schools  were  crowded  and  thousands 
were  pressing  into  the  Church.     For  a  while  the 

Church  doubled  each  three  years.     But  it  was  not 
2H 


Missions  and  Politics 

all  a  solid  movement.  The  real  causes  were  not 
all  spiritual.  The  availability  of  Christianity  as  a 
liberal  influence,  its  connection  with  Western 
civilization,  the  attractiveness  of  its  ethics,  the 
novelty  of  its  doctrines  and  its  methods,  the 
necessity  of  its  acceptance  to  full  Western  inter- 
course, the  example  of  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
Christians  and  of  the  changed  lives  of  real  con- 
verts, the  fascination  of  the  new  learning  opened 
up  in  the  Mission  schools,  the  high  character  and 
remarkable  intelligence  of  the  missionaries,  and 
the  fact  that  Christianity  had  at  first  a  clear  field 
were  the  chief  reasons  for  the  tremendous  leap 
into  popularity  Christianity  made.  For  ten  years 
or  more  it  steadily  gained  ground  and  then  the 
reaction  came.  The  causes  of  the  reaction  were 
partly  negative  and  consisted  in  the  subsidence 
of  the  influences  that  had  lifted  Christianity  into 
power  and  prominence.  The  pace  of  the  people 
had  quickened  into  a  passion.  Western  civiliza- 
tion was  discovered,  as  it  was  believed,  to  be  in- 
dependent of  Christianity.  The  ethics  of  Christ 
naturally  lost  their  attractiveness  in  a  land  where 
one  of  every  four  marriages  issues  in  a  divorce, 
and  among  a  people  into  whose  very  fibre  and 
tissue  un-Christian  ideas  and  standards  have  been 
knit  and  twisted  and  woven  for  centuries.    The 

212 


Japan 

novelty  wore  off  its  doctrines,  and  Buddhism 
plagiarized  its  methods.  The  supposed  necessity 
of  its  acceptance  to  full  Western  intercourse 
aroused  resentment  against  it.  The  enthusiasm 
of  the  Christians  began  to  wane  as  the  tide 
ebbed,  and  the  unchanged  lives  of  supposed  con- 
verts began  to  counterbalance  the  changed  lives 
of  real.  Government  schools  better  equipped 
and  minus  Christianity,  showed  that  the  sweets 
of  the  new  learning  could  be  had  unalloyed  by 
religion.  The  secular  claims  of  civilization 
crowded  in  upon  Christianity,  and  the  mission- 
aries were  at  last  believed  when  they  said  they 
were  but  men  and  brothers.  So  the  mists  were 
dispelled  and  the  dream  was  done. 

But  the  reasons  for  the  reaction  were  not 
wholly  negative.  A  feeling  grew  up  that  it  was 
not  seemly  to  show  such  undignified  haste  in  ac- 
cepting Western  things,  and  it  was  easy  to  single 
out  Christianity  as  the  one  thing  which  should  be 
debarred.  It  could  better  be  given  up  than  the 
wonderful  material  gifts  of  the  West.  And  then 
the  rationalism  of  the  West  poured  in  like  a  flood. 
What  wonder  that  it  shook  Japan  out  of  her  drift 
toward  Christianity  and  made  the  Church  quiver 
to  her  foundations.  Less  than  a  generation  out  of 
the  old  life  of  Japan,  with  no  inherited  equipment 

213 


Missions  and  Politics 

of  moral  and  intellectual  tendency  drawing  them 
to  the  truth,  struggling  themselves  for  a  solid 
foundation  of  faith,  beaten  as  by  the  billows  of  a 
great  storm  by  surge  after  surge  of  error  and 
fancy  pouring  on  them  from  Christian  lands,  a 
little  handful,  misunderstood  and  maligned,  per- 
plexed by  the  conflict  of  influences  they  could 
not  stop  to  scrutinize  and  slay  at  cool  leisure, 
dazzled  and  bewildered  by  the  lights  that  flooded 
them,  swung  along  constantly  by  the  mad  rush 
of  the  Nation,  the  Christians  of  Japan  have  been 
fighting  their  battle  against  not  heathenism  only, 
but  heresies  born  in  Germany  and  Great  Britain 
and  America,  against  materialism  learned  by 
the  Japanese  in  our  own  marts,  against  evolution- 
ary notions  of  religion  and  ethics  and  the  philoso- 
phic struggle  against  supernaturalism  which  have 
come  to  them  as  the  most  advanced  thought  of 
the  most  advanced  nations.  This  has  been  their 
Church  history.  Where  has  there  been  one  like 
it  ?  I  do  not  wonder  that  the  catastrophic  hopes 
of  the  earlier  days  have  died  slowly  away,  and 
that  men  have  to  recognize  now  at  last  that  in 
Japan  as  elsewhere,  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom 
of  God  is  without  observation,  and  that  its  day 
has  not  dawned. 
But  it  will  dawn.     It  is  true  that  *'  the  Japanese 

214 


Japan 

are  frivolous,  are  lacking  seriousness,  are  little  af- 
fected by  the  grave  or  the  sublime ;  are  too  fickle 
to  know  true  placidity  of  mind,  and  too  callous 
to  escape  from  falling  into  cold  indifference,"  that 
they  have  never  heard  a  Moses  or  one  of  the 
prophets,  nor  seen  the  righteous  God  passing  by, 
that  ''they  have  delighted  to  paint  Fugi-yama, 
their  sacred  mount  surrounded  by  birds  and 
flowers,  and  have  regarded  the  happy  man  as  the 
highest  man,  that  they  have  need  to  learn  of 
Moses  and  the  prophets  that  fire  is  the  fitting  gar- 
ment of  the  holy  mountain,  and  that  the  highest 
man  is  the  Man  of  Sorrows."  It  is  true  that 
"they  have  no  fifty-first  Psalm  in  their  language 
and  no  Puritan  in  their  history,"  and  that,  ''they 
need  to  be  awed,  to  be  smitten  into  seriousness, 
by  the  revelation  of  the  God  who  is  above  the 
world  and  of  the  hell  which  is  underneath  civili- 
zation, and  of  the  Christ  whose  eyes  are  as  a 
fire."*  All  this  is  true,  but  it  is  true  also  that 
God  holds  them  in  the  discipline  of  His  holy  will, 
and  that  with  all  sincerity  they  want  what  is  best. 
Who  dare  doubt  that  they  will  find  it  at  last  with 
all  their  national  hopes  and  boastings — nailed  to  a 
cross  ? 
There  is  something  which  kindles  enthusiasm 

•  Contemporary  Review,  April,  1892,  Art.  "  Christianity  in  the  East." 

215 


Missions  and  Politics 

in  the  vision  of  this  eager,  straining  people.  It  is 
sad  to  see  them  grasping  at  the  fruits  of  civiliza- 
tion and  ignoring  its  unseen  but  indispensable 
roots.  But  it  quickens  faith  and  adds  a  keen  in- 
terest to  the  long-sealed  life  of  Asia  to  mark  this 
young  Nation,  protesting  that  it  is  younger  than 
the  Anglo-Saxon,  stepping  out  so  boldly  into  the 
untried  ways.  It  was  almost  ready  to  lead  Asia, 
propounding  a  Monroe  Doctrine  for  the  continent 
of  our  distant  fathers,  as  we  have  propounded 
one  for  our  own.  Even  yet  perhaps  to  the  drum 
beat  of  Asiatic  federation  it  will  guide  the  ancient 
peoples  out  into  the  land  of  promise.  Perhaps 
in  the  cold,  hard  bitterness  of  war,  the  great 
Colossus  of  the  North  will  crush  and.  stifle  all  its 
buoyant  hopes.  Perhaps  the  future  will  be  like 
the  past,  check  and  counter  check,  in  the  petty 
game  of  national  banter  and  pride,  while  under- 
neath the  Kingdom  of  God  builds  and  builds, 
while  He  that  keepeth  Israel  slumbers  not  nor 
sleeps.  We  can  wait  and  see.  Meanwhile  let  us 
not  be  of  those  who  speak  contemptuously  of 
God's  dealings  with  a  people  to  whom  as  well  as 
to  any  people,  the  words  which  John  Milton 
spoke  250  years  ago  of  England  apply:  "Con- 
sider what  a  Nation  it  is!  A  Nation  not  slow  and 
dull,  but  of  quick,  ingenious  and  piercing  spirit; 

216 


Japan 

acute  to  invent,  subtile  and  sinewy  to  discourse, 
not  beneath  the  reach  of  any  point  the  highest 
that  human  capacity  can  soar  to. 

''The  shop  of  war  hath  not  there  more  anvils 
and  hammers  working,  to  fashion  out  the  plates 
and  instruments  of  armed  Justice  in  behalf  of 
beleaguered  Truth,  than  there  be  pens  and  heads 
there,  sitting  by  their  studious  lamps,  musing, 
searching,  revealing  new  notions  and  ideas 
wherewith  to  present,  as  with  their  homage  and 
their  fealty,  the  approaching  reformation ;  others 
as  fast  reading,  trying  all  things,  assenting  to  the 
force  of  reason  and  convincement. 

**  What  could  a  man  require  more  from  a  Na- 
tion so  pliant  and  so  prone  to  seek  after  knowl- 
edge ?  What  wants  there  to  such  a  towardly  and 
pregnant  soil  but  wise  and  faithful  laborers  to 
make  a  knowing  people,  a  Nation  of  prophets,  of 
sages  and  of  worthies  ?  We  reckon  more  than 
five  months  yet  to  harvest.  There  need  not  be 
five  weeks.  Had  we  but  eyes  to  lift  up,  the 
fields  are  white  already." 


217 


LECTURE  V 

Korea 


219 


«  We  sleep  and  wake  and  sleeps  but  all  things  fnove, 
The  Sun  flies  forward  to  his  brother  Sun  ; 
The  dark  Earth  follows  wheel  V  in  her  ellipse  : 
And  human  things  returning  on  themselves 
Move  onward,  leading  up  the  golden  year. 

«'  Ah,  thd'  the  times  when  some  new  thought  can  bud 
Are  but  as  poets'  seasons  when  they  flower. 
Yet  seas,  that  daily  gain  upon  the  shore. 
Have  ebb  and  flow  conditioning  their  march. 
And  slow  and  sure  comes  up  the  golden  year. 

"  When  wealth  no  more  shall  rest  in  mounded  heaps^ 
But  smit  with  freer  light  shall  slowly  melt 
In  many  streams  to  fatten  lower  lands. 
And  light  shall  spread,  and  man  be  liker  ?nan 
Thrd  all  the  season  of  the  golden  year. 

*•  Fly,  happy  happy  sails     .     .     . 
Fly  happy  with  the  mission  of  the  Cross  ; 
Knit  land  to  land,  and  blowing  heavenward 
With  silks,  and  fruits,  and  spices,  clear  of  toll. 
Enrich  the  markets  of  the  golden  year. 

"  But  we  grow  old.     Ah  I  when  shall  all  men's  good 
Be  each  man's  rule,  and  universal  Peace 
Lie  like  a  shaft  of  light  across  the  land. 
And  like  a  lane  of  beams  athwart  the  sea. 
Thro'  all  the  circle  of  the  golden  year  ?  " 

Tennyson,  The  Golden  Year. 


220 


LECTURE  V 

KOREA 

The  future  political  historian,  looking  back 
upon  our  century  will  range  its  incidents  and 
movements  with  reference  to  its  two  great  im- 
pulses,— the  development  of  Democracy  and  the 
dominance  of  European  States  in  Asia.  The 
inner  history  of  every  civilized  nation  will  find  its 
explanation  for  him  in  the  former,  and  in  the  lat- 
ter he  will  discover  the  key  that  will  open  many 
of  the  secrets  and  intricacies  of  diplomatic  inter- 
course and  national  jealousies  or  collusions. 
Other  matters  have  of  course  entered,  like  the 
partition  of  Africa,  but  that  question  has  been  of 
the  same  nature  and  has  indeed  been  only  in- 
cidental to  the  problem  of  Asia  whose  trade 
routes  were  involved  in  the  control  of  Egypt  and 
the  Cape.  And  even  the  Napoleonic  movement 
which  may  seem  at  first  sight-not  sufficiently  ex- 
plicable by  the  movement  of  Democracy  and  the 
development  of  the  Asiatic  problem,  had  its  vivid 
relations  to  each.  One  of  the  most  interesting 
chapters  in  the  history  of  the  century  has  to  do 

221 


Missions  and  Politics 

with  Napoleon's  supposed  attempt  to  lay  the 
foundations  of  Empire  in  Asia,  and  Sir  John  Mal- 
colm's efforts  to  frustrate  such  designs  at  the 
court  of  Path  Ali  Shah  at  Teheran. 

The  network  of  problems  connected  with  the 
designs  of  Europe  upon  Asia  men  have  called  for 
two  generations  "The  Eastern  Question." 
Stripped  of  all  cant  and  complication  it  is  simply 
the  question  of  the  supremacy  of  European  Na- 
tions in  Asia,  and  the  limitations  and  adjustments 
of  their  supremacy.  The  time  has  not  come  yet 
for  writing  its  history.  Indeed  its  history  has 
only  begun,  and  no  man  can  unravel  now  the 
great  tissue  of  deceptions,  encroachments,  honest 
purposes,  irresistible  drivings  of  destiny,  briber- 
ies, duplicities,  adaptations  of  Eastern  methods 
by  Western  energy,  jealousies  and  just  dealings 
which  have  surrounded  it  thus  far.  Some  future 
generation  will  be  able  to  read  the  fascinating 
story,  and  to  wonder  at  the  blindness  of  this 
century  to  the  distinctions  between  facts  and  fic- 
tions, and  at  its  readiness  to  fight  for  imagina- 
tions and  vague  suspicions  while  it  smilingly  en- 
dured real  ills  and  grievous  wrongs. 

The  generation  that  is  thus  able  to  read  with 
luminous  clearness  the  history  of  our  century, 
while  wondering  at  our  narrowness  of  view  and 

222 


Korea 

our  curious  distortions  of  judgment  in  many  mat- 
ters, will,  on  the  whole,  perhaps,  admire  the  demo- 
cratic movements  in  which  the  people  have  come 
to  their  inheritance  as  kings  and  priests  unto  God. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  is  to  be  feared  that  it  will 
view  with  sadness,  as  we  regard  the  wrongs  of 
the  Middle  Ages  which  yet  led  up  to  the  dawn 
of  modern  liberty,  the  seltlshness  and  injustice 
of  most  of  the  aggressive  forces  in  the  Eastern 
Question ;  though  it  will  recognize,  as  we  can  do 
now,  that  they  led  on  toward  the  coming  of  the 
Kingdom  of  Righteousness. 

It  is  because  I  believe  that  these  forces  are  do- 
ing this,  through  no  purpose  of  theirs  but  under 
the  overruling  will  of  God,  that  I  have  spoken 
so  much  in  this  course  of  lectures  of  them,  and 
of  the  way  the  Mission  force  is  working  under 
and  through  them,  as  in  India,  or  so  largely  in 
spite  of  and  against  them  as  in  China  and  Japan; 
and  for  this  same  reason  and  because  it  is  well 
for  us  to  study  the  workings  of  God  in  our  own 
time,  I  come  now  in  this  last  lecture  to  speak  of 
one  of  the  latest  developments  of  the  Eastern 
Question,  and  its  close  relation  to  the  missionary 
development  of  the  Church  in  Korea. 

It  is  most  interesting  to  note  the  way  in  which 
the  Eastern  Question  in  Asia  has  moved  steadily 

223 


Missions  and  Politics 

Eastward.  Early  in  the  century,  the  seat  of  con- 
troversy and  diplomatic  competition  was  in  Per- 
sia. France  was  supposed  to  be  working  toward 
India  and  intending  to  make  Persia  and  the  Per- 
sian Gulf  her  highway  thither.  England's  efforts 
to  prevent  this  supposed  movement  through  a 
treaty  with  Persia  which  declared  outrageous 
treatment  of  the  French  to  be  Persia's  duty  and 
which  resulted  in  a  firman,  directing  Persian 
Governors  to  ''expel  and  extirpate  the  French," 
and  *'to  disgrace  and  slay"  them  as  intruders 
have  been  denounced  by  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson, 
later  British  Minister  to  Persia,  as  ''an  eternal 
disgrace,"  and  he  speaks  with  equal  contempt 
of  England's  subsequent  course  in  violating  her 
treaty  obligations  to  Persia  and  abandoning  the 
poor  wreck  when  she  discovered  that  nothing 
was  to  be  feared  from  Persia  and  nothing  to  be 
gained.  The  seat  of  conflict  and  controversy  in 
the  Eastern  Question  had  shifted.^ 

Men  supposed  next  that  it  was  to  be  settled  in 
the  Turkish  Empire,  and  the  Sultan  has  been 
bolstered  up  to  this  day  on  that  supposition. 
Therefore  the  Crimea,  the  Balkans,  Egypt,  Bul- 
garia, and  the  curse  of  the  Ottoman  still  in 
Europe.     It  was  on  this  supposition  that  the 

*  Rawlinson's  England  and  Russia  in  the  East,  Chaps,  i.,  ii. 

224 


Korea 

Eastern  Question  was  to  be  solved  in  Constan- 
tinople that  Stratford  de  Redcliffe,  with  all  the 
good  he  did,  did  also  this  wrong  of  laying  on 
firmer  foundations  under  the  rotten  throne  of  the 
Sultan  the  jealousies  and  rivalry  of  England  and 
Russia,  and  that  Disraeli  and  Salisbury  at  Berlin 
so  tied  up  the  Ottoman  Empire  to  British  respon- 
sibility that  by  that  token  it  stood  and  defied  all 
Christendom,  while  it  slew  100,000  Christians, 
including  their  little  ones  who  had  done  no 
wrong.  Yet  neither  has  the  Eastern  Question 
been  solved  at  Constantinople  nor  has  all  the 
struggle  of  Great  Britain  prevented  the  slow  but 
certain  passage  of  the  Sultan  and  his  city  under 
the  power  of  the  Slav. 

Then  again  it  was  supposed  that  the  Eastern 
Question,  which  since  the  fall  of  Napoleon  has 
been  mainly  the  dual  struggle  of  England  and 
Russia,  would  be  fought  out  among  the  Afghans. 
England  pushed  her  Indian  frontiers  to  the  Indus, 
and  refusing  to  accept  Lord  Lawrence's  plan  ^  to 
make  the  banks  of  the  Indus  her  boundaries, 
pressed  on  to  Peshawur  and  the  passes  to  Af- 
ghanistan; while  Russia  creeping  steadily  from 
the  Caspian  Sea,  past  Khorassan,  through  Bok- 
hara, overhung  ominously  from  the  North.     Kan- 

*■  Boulger's  Central  Asian  Questions,  p.  129. 
225 


Missions  and  Politics 

dahar,  Kabul,  Herat  and  Merv  became  the  steels 
from  which  the  flints  of  conflicting  interests 
struck  showers  of  sparks ;  but  the  Eastern  Ques- 
tion has  not  been  solved  or  concentrated  in  the 
Afghan  mountains,  though  the  two  Powers  draw 
closer  and  closer  there,  Russia's  last  outpost  being 
practically  at  Faizabad,  and  England's  at  Chitral 
and  less  than  1 50  miles  separating  these  two. 

But  meanwhile  the  Eastern  Question  had  moved 
further  East  and  by  way  of  the  Pamirs,  Sikhim, 
Kuldja,  and  Peking  focused  itself  afresh  under 
our  eyes  in  Korea.  No  nation  seemed  less  likely 
than  Korea  to  be  lifted  thus  into  prominence — 
the  Hermit  Nation,  opened  to  Western  inter- 
course for  only  fifteen  years,  a  relic  of  Chinese 
customs,  dress  and  opinions  left  over  from  the 
times  of  the  Mings  before  the  Tartar  conquest, 
curious,  antipodal,  remote  from  Constantinople, 
Teheran,  Herat  and  Peshawur,  the  vast  majority  of 
its  people  ignorant  of  all  of  these  names,  scarcely 
a  hundred  of  them  acquainted  with  the  existence 
of  the  Eastern  Question,  a  small  peninsula  border- 
ing only  barren  territory,  wanting  nothing  from 
any  one  and  of  little  value  to  any  one — how  did 
this  little  kingdom  come  to  be  entangled  in  the 
meshes  of  this  old  problem  ?  Strange  as  it  may 
seem  at  first  sight,  a  little  glance  over  history  is 

226 


Korea 

sufficient  to  remind  us  that  Korea  has  been  for 
centuries  the  pivot  of  political  movement  in  the 
Far  East,  and  that  it  was  inevitable  that  the  East- 
ward movement  of  Europe  which  constitutes  the 
Eastern  Question,  should  clash  sometime  with 
that  ''course  of  empire"  which  was  Westward 
bound  long  before  Bishop  Berkeley  by  a  quatrain 
fixed  the  eyes  of  the  world  upon  its  march. 
Where  else  should  this  contact  occur  than  in  the 
little  kingdom  which  has  ever  been  the  centre 
of  the  great  movements  of  Eastern,  Central  and 
Northern  Asia  ? 

The  history  of  Korea  runs  back  to  the  time  of 
King  David.  On  the  broad,  richly  fertile  plain 
to  the  West  of  the  present  city  of  Pyeng  Yang, 
the  walls  and  the  wide,  straight  streets  of  the 
city  of  Keja  or  Ki  tse  are  still  pointed  out,  hidden 
in  part  when  we  were  there,  by  the  luxuriant 
crops  of  millet  and  other  grains.  Keja  was 
David's  contemporary.^  The  Shang  dynasty  in 
China  had  e'nded  in  Chow  Sin,  the  "Nero  of 
China"  who  died  in  1122  b.  c.  Keja  was  one 
of  his  nobles,  and  remonstrating  with  his  master 
for  his  tyranny  was  cast  into  prison.  Released 
by  Chow  Sin's  successor,  Keja  refused  the  office 
of  Prime  Minister  lest  he  should  be  regarded  as 

*  The  Korean  Repository,  Vol.  ii.,  No.  3,  pp.  81-87. 
227 


Missions  and  Politics 

condoning  the  revolution  which  had  overthrown 
the  tyrant,  and  removed  to  Northern  Korea.  His 
story  may  be  legendary,  but  the  Koreans  believe 
it,  and  told  the  American  Admiral,  John  Rodgers, 
in  1 87 1,  that  ''Korea  was  satisfied  with  her  civi- 
lization of  4,000  years  and  wanted  no  other." 
After  ten  centuries  of  independence  Keja's  line 
became  vassals  of  China  under  the  Han  dynasty 
in  the  second  century  b.  c.  By  the  second  cen- 
tury of  our  own  era,  an  independent  kingdom 
had  grown  up  again  through  the  conquest  of 
Keja's  old  territories  by  a  race  from  the  North, 
and  this  new  Korean  kingdom  not  only  main- 
tained its  independence  but  overthrew  with  com- 
plete disaster  the  Chinese  armies  which  from  time 
to  time  invaded  the  land,  prior  to  the  seventh  cen- 
tury of  our  era.  While  the  kingdoms  of  North- 
ern Korea  were  thus  struggling  with  China,  the 
Southern  kingdoms  of  the  peninsula  were  dealing 
with  Japan,  and  were  sending  over  to  her  their 
religion,  philosophy,  political  institutions,  prod- 
ucts and  arts.  Early  in  the  third  century,  the 
Queen  of  Japan  invaded  these  kingdoms,  sub- 
dued them,  and  is  said  to  have  written  on  the 
King's  gate,  "The  King  of  Shinra  is  the  dog  of 
Japan."  Thereafter  the  Southern  Koreans  paid 
tribute  to  Japan  until  the  whole  peninsula  was 

228 


Korea 

unified  under  one  of  the  Northern  Kings  named 
Wang,  in  the  tenth  century,  and  formed  an  alli- 
ance with  the  Sung  dynasty  in  China  to  which 
the  Koreans  agreed  to  send  tribute.  When  Gen- 
ghis Khan  arose,  the  Koreans  became  his  vassals, 
and  two  Mongol  invasions  thoroughly  subjugated 
their  land,  which  Khublai  Khan  also  made  the 
base  of  his  vain  attempts  to  conquer  Japan. 
When  the  Mongol  Empire  broke  up  and  the 
Ming  dynasty  succeeded  it  in  China  in  the  mid- 
dle of  the  fourteenth  century,  Korea  came  under 
its  vassalage  and  the  present  dynasty  was  estab- 
lished on  the  throne.  This  ended  the  old  rela- 
tions between  Southern  Korea  and  Japan,  and 
thenceforth  Korea  became  the  middle  ground 
between  Japan  and  China,  their  common  place 
of  meeting  and  conflict,  while  Korea's  alliance 
with  the  Mongols  had  further  embittered  the  Jap- 
anese against  her. 

In  the  five  centuries  which  have  elapsed  since 
the  Korean  Government  was  remodeled  after  the 
fashion  of  the  Mings  and  passed  under  their  su- 
zerainty, there  have  been  repeated  attempts  of 
Japan  to  subjugate  the  peninsula,  and  she  has 
probably  never  in  all  these  years  abandoned  the 
design  of  detaching  the  kingdom  from  China  and 
attaching  it  to  herself.     The  late  war  as  we  shall 

229 


Missions  and  Politics 

see,  was  no  accident  or  avoidable  struggle,  but  a 
step,  abortive  as  it  now  seems,  yet  a  step  pre- 
pared for  and  contemplated  for  years,  for  gen- 
erations, for  centuries,  and  never  lost  sight  of  in 
all  the  changes  through  which  Japan  has  passed, 
toward  a  continental  enlargement  of  her  Empire. 

The  first  of  these  invasions  was  at  the  close  of 
the  sixteenth  century  when  the  Shogun  Hideyo- 
shi  sent  an  army  of  150,000  Japanese,  the  best 
soldiers  of  that  age  in  Asia,  to  overrun  Korea. 
The  Chinese  sent  armies  to  resist.  After  weary 
years  of  fighting,  the  Japanese  poured  in  a  sec- 
ond invasion,  but  though  Korea  was  desolated  it 
was  not  subjugated,  and  in  1598  the  Japanese 
armies  were  recalled,  retaining  only  Fusan,  on  the 
Southern  coast,  which  was  theirs  until  1876,  and 
which  they  practically  hold  to  this  day.^ 

From  the  Chinese  side  also  poor  Korea  has  been 
harassed.  Less  than  twenty  years  after  the  with- 
drawal of  the  Japanese  the  Manchus  assailed  the 
Ming  dynasty,  and  the  struggle  began  which  put 
the  present  rulers  of  China  on  their  throne.  The 
Koreans  did  not  know  which  way  to  turn,  and 
they  trimmed  and  compromised  and  faced  two 
ways  until  the  Tartars  came  down  on  them  like  a 
flood,  forced  their  allegiance,  and  displacing  the 

«  Griffis's  The  Hermit  Nation,  Part  i. 

230 


Korea 

Mings  imposed  on  the  Koreans  a  heavier  vassal- 
age. This,  combined  with  the  tribute  they  had 
been  paying  also  to  Japan,  would  have  been  too 
heavy  a  burden  if  the  Japanese  also  had  de- 
manded increase,  so  the  Shogun  excused  them 
from  a  heavier  levy,  and  gradually  the  hold  of 
China  strengthened  and  the  influence  of  Japan 
weakened,  until  in  1832  the  tribute  to  Japan 
ceased. 

The  Manchu  dynasty  forced  some  changes 
upon  China,  but  remembering  the  assistance 
finally  rendered  them  against  the  Mings  by  the 
Koreans,  left  them  undisturbed  and  the  old  ideas 
and  ignorance  of  the  times  of  the  Mings  con- 
tinued to  hold  full  sway  in  Korea.  The  in- 
fluences which  opened  China  scarcely  affected 
the  Koreans.  They  did  not  feel  at  all  the  pas- 
sions which  shook  Japan.  Until  our  own  day 
Korea  remained  closed  and  unknown  save  from 
curious  and  unreliable  stories  of  shipwrecked 
sailors  and  reports  of  the  Roman  Catholic  priests. 

The  doors  were  opened  only  fifteen  years  ago, 
and  the  steps  which  led  thereto  were  in  part 
analogous  to  the  pretext  upon  which  Germany 
has  appropriated  Kiao  Chou  Bay  in  China.  Korea 
would  have  been  opened  in  any  event,  but  its 
opening  was  hastened  by  the  last  great  massacre 

231 


Missions  and  Politics 

of  Christians  in  1866.  The  Very  Reverend 
Father  Wallays  of  the  Societe  des  Missions 
Etrangeres,  of  Penang,  who  has  written  an  inter- 
esting account  of  their  missions  in  Asia/  says 
that  as  early  as  1592,  during  Hideyoshi's  invasion, 
Japanese  Christians  ''were  able  to  announce  the 
true  religion  to  their  Korean  prisoners,"  but  the 
zeal  of  Father  Gregory  de  Cespedes  among  the 
people  in  1594,  met  with  no  success.  For  two 
centuries  practically  nothing  was  accomplished 
although  the  Catholic  priests  at  Peking  are  said  to 
have  taught  from  time  to  time  the  ambassadors 
whom  the  King  of  Korea  sent  to  bear  the  annual 
tribute.  Toward  the  close  of  the  last  century, 
however,  a  group  of  students,  seeking  enlighten- 
ment, interested  themselves  in  Christian  books 
which  had  found  their  way  in  from  China.  This 
led  to  visits  to  the  Catholic  missionaries  in  Peking, 
fresh  supplies  of  books  with  crucifixes  and 
images  and  in  the  conversion  of  a  number  of  men 
who  in  the  absence  of  any  priest  baptized  one 
another,  took  Christian  names,  and  organized  a 
Church  patterned  so  far  as  they  knew  after  the 
Roman  order.  The  movement  spread,  and  in 
spite  of  persecution  and  the  banishment  and  be- 
heading of  the  leaders,  numbered,  it  is  said,  4,000 

*  Missions  Elrangeres,  trans,  by  E.  H.  Parker,  pp.  94-136. 

232 


Korea 

Christians  in  1794,  the  year  in  which  the  first 
foreign  priest,  Jacques  Tsin,  a  Chinese,  reached 
Seoul.  The  inhibition  of  ancestral  worship  in 
1 79 1,  led  first  to  opposition  and  on  the  death  of 
the  king,  Chang  Cheng,  in  1800  and  the  accession 
of  the  queen,  a  general  royal  edict  against  Chris- 
tianity was  issued  ''which  was  to  be  writ  with 
letters  of  blood  in  the  annals  of  Korea,"  says 
Father  Wallays'  chronicle.  In  spite  of  a  second 
edict  and  continued  persecutions  there  were  said 
to  be  9,000  Christians  in  1838.  In  1839,  another 
edict  was  issued  and  the  three  European  priests 
in  the  country  were  executed.  In  1857,  the 
Catholics  numbered  16,500.  Political  elements 
had  crept  in  already,  however,  and  these  were 
more  pronounced  when  the  news  of  the  defeat  of 
China  by  France  and  England  in  i860  arrived.  It 
was  feared  then  that  the  armies  would  come  to 
Korea,  and  "in  many  instances  people  of  rank 
humbly  sought  the  good  favor  and  protection  of 
the  Christians.  Medals,  crosses  and  books  on  re- 
ligion were  bought  in  quantities.  Some  even 
wore  them  publicly  on  their  dress,  hoping  for 
safety  when  the  dreaded  invasion  should  come." 
More  priests  came.  Christians  multiplied  until 
1866.  That  year  was  the  year  of  martyrdom.  A 
letter  came  from  Peking  from  the  Korean  am- 

233 


Missions  and  Politics 

bassador  there,  declaring  that  the  Chinese  were 
killing  all  the  Christians  in  the  Empire.  In  Seoul 
an  anti-foreign  spirit  was  dominant.  It  was  de- 
termined to  follow  the  great  example  of  China. 
Of  four  bishops  and  nineteen  priests,  fourteen 
fell  as  martyrs,  and  thousands  of  native  Christians 
were  slain.  Many  eyewitnesses  in  Korea  tell  the 
story  of  those  bloody  days  when  the  sands  of 
the  Han  River  were  red  with  the  blood  of  those 
who  were  faithful  unto  death.  The  Tai  Wan 
Kun,  the  father  of  the  present  King,  and  until  his 
recent  death  the  most  disturbing  element  in 
Korean  politics,  conducted  these  last  and  most 
furious  persecutions,  and  never  relented  until  the 
hands  of  civilization  pushed  open  the  closed 
doors  which  concealed  his  iniquities.  To  revenge 
the  great  massacre  a  French  naval  expedition 
came  toward  the  close  of  1866,  but  it  failed 
wretchedly,  left  the  impression  that  it  had  been 
overwhelmed  and  only  instigated  the  Tai  Wan 
Kun  to  a  more  determined  effort  to  exterminate 
Christianity  root  and  branch.  "  It  is  for  the  sake 
of  the  Christians,"  said  the  official  proclamation, 
"that  the  barbarians  have  just  come  here.  It  is 
on  account  of  these  only  that  the  waters  of  our 
river  have  been  defiled  by  Western  ships.  It  be- 
hooves  that  their  blood  should  wash   out  the 

234 


Korea 

stain."  The  same  impression  was  produced  in 
China,  and  some  trace  the  Tientsin  massacre 
three  years  later  to  this  unfortunate  expedition.^ 

It  was  this  same  year  that  our  relations  with 
Korea  began,  although  we  had  indirect  relations 
long  ago  when  Jonathan  Edwards  at  Stockbridge 
was  annoyed  by  the  drunkenness  of  his  Indians, 
who  obtained  their  money  and  drink  from  the 
Dutch  traders  at  Albany,  in  exchange  for  ginseng 
root  which  the  Dutch  took  down  to  New  York 
and  shipped  to  Korea.''  Our  direct  relations  were 
inaugurated  by  the  destruction  of  an  American 
schooner,  the  General  Sherman,  which  ran 
aground  in  the  Tatong  River  near  our  Mission  sta- 
tion at  Pyeng  Yang,  and  was  burned  by  Koreans 
who  also  murdered  her  crew.  Our  Government 
sent  a  man  of  war  to  obtain  satisfaction,  but 
failed,  and  dispatched  four  years  later,  a  small 
expedition  which  captured  the  Korean  ports  at 
the  mouth  of  the  H^n,  killed  some  Koreans,  but 
did  not  get  to  Seoul,  and  withdrew,  leaving  with 
the  Koreans  a  stronger  conviction  than  ever  that 
the  Western  Nations  were,  though  troublesome, 
afraid  and  harmless. 

By  this  time  Japan  had  passed  through  her  new 

•  GriflFis's  The  Hermit  Nation,  Part  iii. 
'Griffis's  The  Hermit  Nation,  pp.  3S8,  389. 

235 


Missions  and  Politics 

birth,  and  as  soon  as  the  new  Government  was 
organized  and  a  department  of  Foreign  Affairs 
created,  the  Korean  Government  was  summoned 
to  resume  ancient  friendship  and  vassalage. 
''This  summons,"  as  Griffis  says,  "coming  from 
a  source  unrecognized  for  eight  centuries,  and  to 
a  regent  swollen  with  pride  at  his  victory  over 
the  French  and  his  success  in  extirpating  the 
Christian  religion  and  irritated  at  Japan  for  cut- 
ting free  from  Chinese  influence  and  tradition, 
was  spurned  with  defiance."  An  insolent  reply 
was  sent  to  Japan,  but  the  Nation  was  not  yet 
ready  and  the  insult  was  pocketed,  though  the 
coming  punishment  of  Korea  was  thenceforth 
more  distinctly  than  ever  the  first  goal  of  Japa- 
nese foreign  policy,  and  in  1876  an  unwarranted 
attack  on  some  Japanese  soldiers  led  to  the  inva- 
sion of  the  peninsula.  There  was  no  war,  how- 
ever. China,  which  in  peaceful  times  claimed 
Korea  as  her  complete  vassal,  and  in  difficulties 
disavowed  all  responsibilities  for  her,  gave  the 
Japanese  Minister  in  Peking  a  written  disclaimer 
of  responsibility  for  the  outpost  state,  and  even 
sent  a  messenger  to  Seoul  advising  the  young 
King  who  had  taken  the  government  from  the  Re- 
gent, to  accept  the  first  of  the  alternatives  Japan 
offered — a  treaty  of  commerce  or  war.     Korea 

236 


Korea 

chose  as  China  advised,  and  Article  I.  of  the  new 
treaty  read,  **  Chosen  being  an  independent  State 
enjoys  the  same  sovereign  rights  as  Japan." 
Three  ports  were  opened  as  a  result  of  this  treaty, 
and  for  a  time  progressive  influences  seemed  to 
prevail  in  Seoul.  At  any  rate  both  by  China  and 
by  Japan  Korea  had  now  been  declared  free  and 
independent.  But  China  had  not  the  least  idea  of 
so  regarding  her,  and  within  Korea  the  conserva- 
tive elements  were  far  too  strong  to  allow  an  easy 
breach  with  Chinese  vassalage  and  antiquity. 

Still,  while  the  progressive  party  was  in  power 
the  spirit  of  foreign  intercourse  was  given  some 
play,  and  the  Japanese  treaties  were  followed  in 
1882  by  treaties  with  America  and  China,  and 
these  were  followed  by  British,  German  and 
French ;  and  then  came  an  outburst  that  threat- 
ened to  destroy  all  that  had  been  secured.  The 
Tai  Wan  Kun  was  at  the  bottom  of  it,  having 
fostered  the  anti-foreign,  anti-progressive  spirit 
in  every  way,  teaching  the  people  that  "the 
Japanese  were  inebriated  with  the  manners  of 
Christian  Nations  and  were  enchanted  by  the 
Western  devils,  and  that  as  a  Europeanized  coun- 
try was  being  created  in  their  immediate  neigh- 
borhood, they  must  expel  the  barbarians."  The 
people  arose,  many  of  the  family  of  the  Queen 

237 


Missions  and  Politics 

Min,  a  strong,  progressive  woman,  were  killed, 
and  the  Japanese  were  driven  out  of  Seoul. 

The  doors  had  been  opened,  however,  never  to 
be  closed  again,  and  in  a  few  months  the  Japa- 
nese were  back,  an  indemnity  of  1500,000  had 
been  agreed  to  by  Korea  and  subsequently  re- 
mitted by  Japan,  and  the  Tai  Wan  Kun  kid- 
napped by  the  Chinese  envoy  was  carried  off  to 
China,  where  he  would  find  things  antiquated  to 
his  taste,  while  a  number  of  Chinese  soldiers  re- 
mained in  the  country  to  preserve  order.  So  Ja- 
pan and  China  drew  near  and  faced  one  another 
in  the  affairs  of  Korea  once  again, — the  progress- 
ive party  counting  upon  Japan's  sympathy,  and 
the  reactionaries  upon  the  aid  and  cooperation  of 
China. 

The  first  clash  came  in  1884.^  The  liberal  party 
planned  a  scheme  including  the  murder  of  the 
leading  conservatives  and  the  initiation  in  Korea 
of  a  progressive  movement  like  that  in  Japan.  It 
was  thus  that  the  affair  began,  but  it  ended  in 
a  pro-Chinese,  anti-progressive  demonstration 
which  brought  back  the  Tai  Wan  Kun,  threw  the 
Government  into  the  hands  of  the  conservatives, 
and  by  convention  between  China  and  Japan  re- 

•  The  Korean  Repository,  Vol.  iv.,  Nos.  3,  4,  6,  Articles  by  F.  H.  M5rsel  on 
The  Emeute  of  1884. 

238 


Korea 

moved  their  armies  on  equal  terms,  with  this 
provision  which  led  to  the  late  war,  that  "  either 
China  or  Japan  should  have  the  right  to  dispatch 
troops  to  Korea,  if  necessary  to  preserve  order 
or  protect  their  subjects,  on  giving  notice  each  to 
the  other,  and  that  when  order  was  established 
both  forces  should  be  withdrawn  simultane- 
ously." 

The  seeds  of  the  late  war  were  in  that  conven- 
tion, as  a  few  years  showed,  for  the  country  went 
slowly  on  from  bad  to  worse  under  the  rule  of 
the  Confucian  party  in  the  State.  There  is  abso- 
lutely no  hope  for  a  nation  wedded  indissolubly 
to  worn-out  forms  and  arid  ideas,  and  at  last  an 
uprising  came  in  the  form  of  a  revival  of  the 
Tong  Haks,  or  "  Eastern  Students"  a  name  they 
took  in  1859  when  the  sect  arose  under  a  man 
named  Choi  who  had  meditated  on  the  spread  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  and  had  professed 
to  have  received  a  supernatural  revelation  that  it 
was  not  the  true  religion,  but  that  there  was  one 
God  who  was  to  be  worshipped.  His  religion 
was  a  mixture  of  Confucianism,  from  which  he 
took  the  Five  Relations ;  Buddhism,  from  which 
he  took  the  law  for  heart-cleansing;  Taoism, 
from  which  he  took  the  law  of  cleansing  the 
body  from  moral  as  well  as  from  natural  filth; 

239 


Missions  and  Politics 

and  Christianity,  from  which  he  borrowed  the 
term  and  idea  of  God.  The  name  **  Eastern 
Learning"  also  he  chose  in  contradistinction  to 
So  Hak  or  Western  Learning  or  Romanism. 
Choi  was  beheaded  under  the  charge  of  being  a 
Romanist  in  the  massacre  of  1865- 1866,  and  the 
Tong  Haks  were  put  under  the  ban;  but  they 
have  never  been  suppressed  as  a  sect  of  virile, 
monotheistic  protestants  against  corruption  or 
tyranny,  a  sort  of  Korean  Tai  Pings. ^ 

In  the  Spring  of  1893  a  party  of  them  came  to 
Seoul  from  the  South  with  accounts  of  oppression 
and  wrongdoing,  and  a  petition  that  the  dead  Choi 
should  be  declared  innocent  and  have  a  certain  rank 
and  a  name  and  a  monument.  The  King  refused 
their  petition,  and  in  1894  the  uprising  came. 
The  Tong  Haks  swept  across  Southern  Korea  as 
the  Tai  Pings  had  swept  across  Central  China, 
only  with  perhaps  a  more  sincere  purpose  to  rid 
the  land  of  its  incubus  of  sterile  Confucian 
leeches,  and  set  it  free  for  some  sort  of  clean 
government. 

This  was  the  appeal  they  issued  to  the  coun- 
try: "The  five  relations  of  man  in  this  world 
are  sacred.      When  king  and  courtier  are  har- 

*  The  Korean  Repository,  Vol.  ii.,  No.  2,  pp.  56-60;  Vol.  ii.,  No.  6,  pp. 
201-208. 

240 


Korea 

monious,  father  and  son  loving,  blessings  follow 
and  the  Kingdom  will  be  established  forever. 
Our  Sovereign  is  a  dutiful  son,  a  wise,  just  and 
benevolent  ruler,  but  this  cannot  be  said  of  his 
courtiers.  In  ancient  times,  faithfulness  and 
bravery  were  distinguishing  virtues,  but  the 
courtiers  of  to-day  are  degenerated.  They  close 
the  ears  and  eyes  of  the  King  so  that  he  neither 
hears  the  appeals  of  his  people,  nor  sees  their 
true  condition.  When  an  attempt  is  made  to  get 
the  truth  to  the  King,  the  act  is  branded  as  trai- 
torous, and  the  man  as  a  malefactor.  Incompe- 
tency marks  the  men  in  Seoul,  and  ability  to  ex- 
tort money  those  in  the  country.  Great  dis- 
content prevails  among  the  people,  property  is 
insecure,  and  life  itself  is  becoming  a  burden  and 
undesirable.  The  bonds  that  ought  to  exist  be- 
tween king  and  people,  father  and  son,  master 
and  slave,  are  being  loosened. 

*'The  ancients  say,  'Where  ceremony,  mod- 
esty, virtue  and  righteousness  are  wanting,  the 
Kingdom  cannot  stand.'  Our  country  and  con- 
dition is  now  worse  than  it  has  ever  been  before. 
Ministers  of  State,  governors  and  magistrates  are 
indifferent  to  our  welfare ;  their  only  concern  is  to 
fill  their  coffers  at  our  expense.  Civil  service  ex- 
aminations, once  the  glory  of  our  people,  have 

241 


Missions  and  Politics 

become  a  place  of  barter;  the  debt  of  the  coun- 
try remains  unpaid;  these  men  are  conceited, 
pleasure-loving,  adulterers,  without  fear;  and  the 
people  of  the  eight  provinces  are  sacrificed  to 
their  lust  and  greed.  The  officials  in  Seoul  have 
their  residences  and  rice  fields  in  the  country  to 
which  they  propose  to  flee  in  time  of  war,  and 
thus  desert  their  King.  Can  we  endure  these 
things  much  longer.^  Are  the  people  to  be 
ground  down  and  destroyed  ?  Is  there  no  help 
for  us  ?  We  are  despised,  we  are  oppressed,  we 
are  forsaken,  but  we  still  remain  loyal  subjects  of 
our  gracious  King.  We  are  fed  by  him,  clothed 
by  him,  and  we  cannot  sit  down  idly  and  see  the 
country  disgraced  and  ruined.  We,  the  people 
of  the  whole  realm,  have  determined  to  resist 
unto  death  the  corruption  and  oppression  of  the 
officials  and  to  support  with  zeal  and  courage  the 
State.  Let  not  the  cry  of  'traitor'  and  'war' 
disturb  you.  Attend  to  your  business  and  be 
ready  to  respond  to  this  when  the  time  comes.  "^ 
By  patriotic  appeals  and  other  methods  not  so 
scrupulous  the  Tong  Haks  raised  rebellion,  not 
against  the  King,  for  neither  progressive  nor  con- 
servative has  ever  renounced  him,  but  against  the 
corrupt  official  class,  and  by  June,  the  capital  of 

•  The  Korean  Repository,  Vol.  ii.,  No.  i,  pp.  29-35. 

242 


Korea 

Chulla  Province  had  fallen  into  their  hands.  Upon 
this  the  King  appealed  to  China  for  assistance  in 
putting  down  the  rebellion.  If  the  progressive 
party  had  been  uppermost  in  his  councils  at  the 
time,  the  appeal  would  have  been  to  Japan. 
China  at  once  responded,  and  announced  to 
Japan  the  departure  of  the  troops  in  accordance 
with  the  convention  of  1885,  asserting  also  in  her 
note  that  Korea  was  her  tributary  State.  Japan 
at  once  sent  troops  also,  and  challenged  the  claim 
to  suzerainty  over  Korea.  It  is  unnecessary  to 
trace  the  steps  that  followed  in  detail  to  fix  the 
precise  responsibility  for  the  war.  Mr.  Norman 
charges  it  upon  China.  Others  charge  it  upon 
Japan.  The  simple  fact  is  that,  it  was  certain 
that  Japan  had  never  abandoned  the  idea  of  con- 
trolling Korea  either  as  a  vassal  state  or  as  a  state 
independent  of  China  and  under  the  tutelage  of 
Japan.  If  one  justification  for  a  war  to  this  end 
had  been  wanting,  another  would  have  been 
found;  and  plenty  being  at  hand  and  hostilities 
having  already  begun  in  which  Japan  had  occu- 
pied Seoul  at  the  cost  of  some  Korean  lives  and 
sunk  a  Chinese  transport  bearing  more  troops  to 
Korea,  formal  declaration  was  made  by  the  Mi- 
kado on  August  3,  1894.^ 

»  Norman's  Peoples  and  Politics  of  the  Far  East,  Chap,  xxiii. 

243 


Missions  and  Politics 

Under  Japanese  influences  Korea  had  already 
given  notice  of  the  renunciation  of  all  conven- 
tions with  China  and  all  claims  of  China  upon 
her,  and  had  promised  reforms  in  the  Govern- 
ment. In  two  months  the  war  was  over,  and 
Korea  had  slipped  out  forever  from  her  old  moor- 
ings and  was  moving  out  into  the  future  in  the 
wake  and  under  tow  of  Japan.  Japan  had  em- 
barked on  her  mission  of  civilizing  Asia,  and  had 
now  one  nation  absolutely  in  her  control  for 
good  or  for  ill. 

She  kept  Korea  for  just  one  year,  and  it  cannot 
be  denied  that  she  set  a  pace  of  progress  and  re- 
form that  took  the  breath  out  of  her  ward.  Japan 
had  crowded  the  whole  history  of  civilization  into 
one  generation  in  her  own  case.  She  seemed 
bent  on  lowering  this  record  with  Korea.  In  the 
main  her  influence  was  most  exemplary.  She 
purged  the  offices  of  the  State.  It  was  estimated 
that  over  17,000  persons  were  struck  off  the  pay 
rolls  in  three  months — chiefly  attendants,  eunuchs, 
gatekeepers,  retainers,  etc.  The  Government 
was  reorganized  into  departments,  with  genuine 
duties  and  responsibilities,  and  records  were 
opened,  past  administrations  having  left  no  rec- 
ords,  having    done    nothing    worth    recording. 

Courts  were  established  in  which  justice  was  ap- 
244 


Korea 

plied.  Taxes  were  regulated  and  no  longer  left 
to  caprice.  Salaries  were  fixed  to  all  official  posi- 
tions, and  bribery,  office  buying  and  all  squeez- 
ing were  abolished.  Trade  was  encouraged. 
Accounts  of  Government  revenue  were  estab- 
lished, and  an  annual  budget  of  expense  and  re- 
ceipts inaugurated.  All  that  Japan  had  learned 
from  civilization  she  was  eager  to  teach  Korea; 
but  the  temptations  of  the  situation  were  too 
great,  and  the  impatience  of  the  teacher  could  not 
be  restrained.  She  forgot  that  great  changes  need 
time  and  that  civilization  is  a  growth  from  within 
and  not  a  garment  thrown  on  from  without;  and 
forgetting  this  and  intoxicated  with  the  joy  of  re- 
form, she  began  to  vaccinate  the  people,  and  to 
cut  their  hair,  to  prescribe  the  width  of  their 
sleeves,  and  the  cut  of  their  trousers,  and  yet 
while  pleased  as  a  child  with  the  chance  of  teach- 
ing the  mint  and  anise  and  cummin  of  progress,  by 
no  means  lost  sight  of  the  weightier  matters  of 
the  law.^  Naturally  a  people  schooled  for  cen- 
turies in  Confucian  notions,  comatose  with 
Chinese  conservatism,  even  though  startled  by 
the  overthrow  of  their  old  patron  and  the  meteoric 
demonstration    of   the    superiority  of  Western 

*  The  Korean  Repository,  Vol.  iii.,  No.  7,  pp.  263-272 ;  Vol.  iv.,  No.  5,  pp. 
192-195  ;  Wilkinson's  The  Korean  Government,  passim;  Bishop's  Korea  and 
Her  Neighbors,  Chaps,  xxxi.,  xxxii. 

245 


Missions  and  Politics 

ways,  did  not  like  to  be  hustled  along  in  this 
fashion.  The  Japanese  on  the  other  hand,  be- 
came convinced  that  they  could  get  Korea 
civilized  yet  more  rapidly  if  the  Queen,  who  was 
not  a  reactionary  woman,  but  only  a  careful, 
shrewd,  patriotic  stateswoman,  could  be  disposed 
of.  The  idea  was  simply  monstrous,  but  it  was 
actually  carried  out,  and  the  Japanese  Minister 
deliberately  arranged  for  the  murder  of  the  Queen. 
It  was  an  outburst  like  the  savagery  at  Port  Arthur 
during  the  war,  and  shows  how  much  is  yet  to 
be  done  in  the  transformation  of  Japanese  life 
and  character. 

The  deed  was  done  early  in  the  morning  of 
October  8,  1895.  On  the  preceding  evening 
Japanese  influence  was  absolutely  supreme  in 
Korea,  but  no  one  loved  it.  The  reforms  had 
provoked  even  the  people  most  benefited  by 
them.  Japan  had  executed  them  in  the  most 
obtuse  and  unconciliatory  way.  No  party  had 
been  built  up  favorable  to  Japanese  influence. 
The  dismissed  officials  loathed  their  rulers,  and 
the  common  people  were  incensed  at  their  dic- 
tatorialness.  The  murder  of  the  Queen  was  the 
match.  The  explosion  followed.  One  wonders 
at  the  stupidity  of  the  Japanese  in  committing 
such  a  blunder.     Any  one  could  see  the  temper 

246 


Korea 

of  the  people.  Every  one  knew  also  that  the 
Queen,  even  though  she  might  be  slow  and  cau- 
tious, was  the  most  reliable  and  intelligent  element 
in  the  State,  and  the  best  guarantee  of  such  prog- 
ress as  was  made.^ 

But  the  blunder  was  committed,  and  in  twenty- 
four  hours  Japan's  influence  in  Korea  was  dead. 
The  King  fled  to  the  Russian  legation,  and  the 
country  passed  without  an  effort  on  his  part  or 
the  expenditure  of  one  rouble  or  one  life  into  the 
hands  of  the  Czar.  And  so  the  Eastern  Question, 
the  most  disturbing  and  harassing  question  of  the 
century,  rose  up  grimly  in  the  Land  of  Morn- 
ing Calm.  And  yet  for  a  time,  the  wise,  tolerant, 
honest  course  of  a  Russian  Minister  in  Seoul  gave 
good  promise  that  the  question  would  not  be 
freighted  there  with  jealousies  and  conflicts  and 
threats  of  strife.  He  gave  the  King  a  temporary 
home,  aided  him  in  his  course,  discouraged  him 
from  injustice,  advised  the  employment  of  an 
Englishman  as  financial  adviser  of  the  Treasury, 
with  more  power  than  he  possessed  for  himself, 
dealt  with  firmness,  moderation  and  self-restraint 
toward  all,  and  then  unfortunately  was  trans- 
ferred to  Mexico,  and  a  new  man  of  a  different 


»  The  Korean  Repository,  Vol.  ii.,  No.   lo,  pp.  386-392;  Vol.  iii.,  No.  3, 
pp.  1 18-142;  Bishop's  Korea  and  Her  Neighbors,  Chap,  xxiii. 

247 


Missions  and  Politics 

type  came  on  the  scene,  and  for  a  season  seemed 
about  to  abandon  his  predecessor's  policy,  and  to 
turn  the  Eastern  Question  in  Korea  into  the  same 
question  that  has  frowned  for  two  generations  on 
Afghanistan. 

In  1887,  to  secure  the  evacuation  of  Port  Hamil- 
ton on  the  Korean  coast  by  Great  Britain,  the 
Tsung  li  yamen  gave  England  assurance  that  the 
Russian  Government  had  given  a  ''most  explicit 
guarantee,  distinctly  declaring  that  in  the  future, 
Russia  would  not  take  Korean  territory."  But 
Great  Britain,  herself,  gave  solemn  assurances 
that  she  would  retire  from  Egypt.  As  surely  as 
Egypt  is  not  to  be  surrendered  by  Great  Britain, 
or  almost  as  surely,  control  over  Korea's  destiny 
will  not  be  surrendered  by  Russia.  The  prize  is 
in  Russia's  keeping  and  at  Russia's  disposing. 
That  is  the  sovereign  political  force  that  will  con- 
trol Korea's  destiny,  whatever  temporary  con- 
ciliations may  be  given  to  Great  Britain  or 
Japan.^  ^ 

'  Curzon's  Problems  of  the  Far  East,  Chap.  vii. 

'  The  latest  development  of  the  relations  of  Russia  and  Japan  to  Korea  is 
indicated  by  the  Protocol  agreed  upon,  April  25th,  1898,  as  follows  : 

Article  i.  The  Imperial  Governments  of  Japan  and  Russia  definitely  rec- 
ognize the  sovereignty  and  entire  independence  of  Korea,  and  mutually 
agree  to  refrain  from  all  direct  interference  in  the  internal  affairs  of  that 
country. 

Article  2.  Desiring  to  avoid  every  possible  cause  of  misunderstanding  in 
the  future,  the  Imperial  Governments  of  Japan  and  Russia  mutually  agree,  in 
case  Korea  should  apply  to  Japan  or  to  Russia  for  advice  and  assistance,  not 

248 


Korea 

But  there  is  another  force  at  work  in  the  mak- 
ing of  Korea,  and  its  operation  is  most  marked. 
It  entered  at  the  time  of  the  upheaval  of  1884 

to  take  any  measure  in  the  nomination  of  military  instructors  and  financial 
advisers  without  having  previously  come  to  a  mutual  agreement  on  the 
subject. 

Article  3.  In  view  of  the  large  development  of  Japanese  commercial  and 
industrial  enterprises  in  Korea,  as  well  as  the  considerable  number  of  Jap- 
anese resident  in  that  country,  the  Imperial  Government  will  not  impede 
the  development  of  commercial  and  industrial  relations  between  Japan  and 
Korea. 

The  following  opinions  from  two  Japanese  papers  will  serve  better  than 
anything  else  as  commentaries  on  this  agreement.  They  are  reported  in  the 
Japan  Weekly  Mail  for  May  21,  1898. 

"The  Yoro^u  Choho,  calls  the  recently  concluded  Russo-Japanese  Proto- 
col mere  'nonsense.'  In  the  first  place,  Russia  will  not  pay  any  attention 
to  its  provisions  when  it  suits  her  convenience  to  disregard  them.  She 
snapped  her  fingers  at  the  Yamagata-Lobanow  Convention  the  moment  that 
she  saw  her  account  in  so  doing.  In  the  second  place,  it  is  not  Russia  but 
Japan  that  the  Protocol  hampers.  Russia  finds  it  irksome  at  present  to 
meddle  with  Korean  affairs.  The  Manchurian  problem  occupies  her  entire 
attention.  Had  she  been  persuaded  to  sign  this  Protocol  at  the  time  when 
it  suited  her  policy  to  fix  her  grasp  upon  Korea — last  spring,  for  example — 
the  document  might  have  been  regarded  with  some  satisfaction.  Rut  now 
that  she  has  voluntarily  stepped  out  and  left  the  field  clear  for  Japan,  the 
result  of  such  a  Protocol  is  to  prevent  the  latter  from  utilizing  the  situation 
as  she  might  have  otherwise  done.  Russia  having  already  determined  to 
stand  aloof  in  the  interests  of  her  own  convenience,  concedes  nothing  when 
she  embodies  her  abstention  in  a  document.  But  Japan  concedes  a  great 
deal  when  she  agrees  that  her  hands  shall  be  fettered  which  would  other- 
wise have  been  free.  That,  stated  briefly,  is  the  gist  of  the  Yoro{u  Choho' s 
comments  on  the  first  two  articles  of  the  Protocol.  With  respect  to  the 
third,  it  inquires  what  possible  right  Russia  would  have  had  under  any  cir- 
cumstances to  oppose  the  development  of  Japanese  trade  and  industry  in  the 
peninsula.  She  could  have  had  no  such  right,  and  it  is  consequently  ab- 
surd to  pledge  her  not  to  exercise  it.  On  the  whole,  our  contemporary 
concludes  that  the  profits  conferred  by  the  Protocol  belong  solely  to  Russia, 
japan  has  been  thoroughly  befooled." 

"  The  J iji  Shimpo  has  a  remarkable  article  on  the  subject  of  the  relations 
between  Japan  and  Korea.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the y/)V  strongly  ad- 
vocates the  settlement  of  Japanese  in  Korea,  being  persuaded  that  no  better 
plan  offers  for  the  development  of  the  latter  country  and  the  spread  of 
Japanese  influence  there.  Our  contemporary  now  urges  the  importance  of 
249 


Missions  and  Politics 

which  drove  the  liberal  leaders  out  of  the  country. 
The  missionaries  were  obliged  to  exercise  the 
greatest  caution  at  first.  Dr.  H.  N.  Allen,  who 
is    United  States  Minister  now,  was  only  able  to 

inducing  Buddhist  priests  also  to  cross  to  the  peninsula  and  take  part  in  the 
movement  of  colonization.  This  advice  is  not  tendered  on  religious  grounds 
so  much  as  on  account  of  the  humanizing  and  tranquillizing  effect  of  mis- 
sionary teaching  and  example.  Very  great  differences  exist  between  the 
customs,  traditions,  language  and  methods  of  the  Koreans  and  the  Japanese. 
It  is  inevitable  that  these  differences  should  become  causes  of  friction,  and 
that  all  kinds  of  misunderstandings  should  arise.  The  influence  of  Buddhist 
missionaries  would  be  invaluable  under  such  circumstances.  There  is  con- 
siderable similarity  between  the  conditions  that  may  be  anticipated  in  Korea 
and  the  conditions  that  existed  in  Japan  thirty-five  years  ago.  Japanese 
visiting  Korea  will  be  chiefly  bent  upon  the  pursuit  of  gain  and  will  not  be 
disposed  to  pay  much  attention  to  the  sentiments  and  customs  of  the  Ko- 
reans, or  to  allow  their  spirit  to  be  controlled  by  any  consideration  for  the 
country  or  the  people.  That  was  the  case  with  foreigners  in  the  early  days 
of  Japan's  intercourse  with  them,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  many 
serious  troubles  would  have  occurred  had  not  the  Christian  missionary  acted 
as  a  counterbalancing  influence.  The  Christian  missionary  not  only  showed 
to  the  Japanese  the  altruistic  side  of  the  Occidental  character,  but  also  by 
his  teaching  and  his  preaching  imparted  a  new  and  attractive  aspect  to  inter- 
course which  would  otherwise  have  seemed  masterful  and  repellent.  The 
Japanese  cannot  thank  the  Christian  missionary  too  much  for  the  admirable 
leaven  that  he  introduced  into  their  relations  with  foreigners,  nor  can  they 
do  better  than  follow  the  example  that  he  has  set,  in  their  own  intercourse 
with  the  Koreans." 

The  Japan  Mail  comments  editorially,  "  As  to  the  worth  of  such  a  declara- 
tion, it  is  useless  to  say  anything.  The  validity  of  every  pledge  depends,  to 
a  large  extent,  upon  the  good  faith  of  those  concerned  in  observing  it. 
.  .  .  That  the  promise  contained  in  this  new  Protocol  has  been  made  in 
good  faith,  no  one  has  any  right  to  doubt.  That  it  can  be  faithfully  observed 
in  the  face  of  the  conditions  created  by  other  covenants,  appears  to  us  alto- 
gether problematical.  .  .  .  It  is  curious  to  note  how  completely  Japan 
has  stepped  into  the  place  hitherto  occupied  by  China  vis-d-vis  Korea.  This 
Rosen-Nishi  Protocol  bears  a  remarkably  close  resemblance  to  the  Ito-Li 
convention  of  1885.  It  was  predicted  by  good  judges  at  the  latter  date  that 
if  unhappily  China  and  Japan  should  ever  quarrel  over  Korea,  the  on-looker 
Russia,  would  principally  profit  by  the  fracas.  The  forecast  was  sound. 
It  is  with  Russia  that  Japan  has  now  to  parley  about  Korean  independence, 
as  she  parleyed  with  China  thirteen  years  ago.  Let  us  hope  that  the  analogy 
will  never  be  pushed  to  completion." 

250 


^  Korea 

gain  a  foothold  by  acting  as  physician  to  the 
American  legation  until  his  fortunate  treatment 
of  Min  Yong  Ik  brought  him  into  the  favor  of  the 
King,  and  soon  thereafter  it  was  possible  to  do 
work  untrammelled.  Especially  since  the  war  the 
Koreans  have  shown  themselves  singularly  open 
and  adapted  to  the  Gospel.  Instead  of  crying 
''foreign  devil,"  as  foreigners  are  saluted  in 
China,  the  Koreans  address  the  missionaries  by 
a  title  of  honor  and  kindness.  Christians  are  re- 
ceived with  remarkable  confidence  and  regard. 
In  the  North  of  Korea  the  Church  has  spread  and 
penetrated  as  we  saw  nothing  to  surpass  anywhere 
in  the  world.  We  visited  one  day  a  large  and 
well  furnished  temple  to  the  Chinese  god  of  war 
in  Pyeng  Yang.  The  gates  were  closed  and 
locked,  and  the  pavements  were  overgrown  with 
grass.  At  last  a  keeper,  who  said  he  was  there 
only  because  it  was  a  cheap  place  to  lodge,  let  us 
in  and  showed  us  the  forsaken  shrines  and  the 
unworshipped  gods.  "  Why  is  this  ?"  we  asked. 
"Where  are  the  worshippers.^"  "Oh,"  said  the 
man,  "so  many  people  believe  in  this  Jesus  doc- 
trine that  no  one  comes  here  any  more."  The 
country  has  been  favorably  impressed  by  Christi- 
anity, from  the  King  who  counts  some  of  the 
missionaries  as  his  most  trusted  friends,  down 

251 


Missions  and  Politics 

to  the  coolies.  The  Government  itself  subscribed 
for  467  copies  of  The  Christian  News,  a  weekly 
paper  edited  by  Dr.  Underwood,  and  ordered 
them  to  be  sent  one  to  each  of  the  367  magis- 
tracies, and  ten  to  each  of  the  ten  departments  of 
the  central  Government,  the  King  himself  receiv- 
ing his  copies.  How  strong  the  influence  of 
Christianity  has  been  may  be  indicated  by  a 
proclamation  issued  by  the  Governor  of  Whang 
Hai  Do,  one  of  the  best  provinces:  **  Our  school 
was  handed  down  to  us  by  the  sages  of  old  days 
whose  teachings  and  doctrines  are  forever  un- 
changeable. But  of  late  the  foreign  religion  came 
into  the  country;  the  foolish  novelty  seekers  have 
fallen  into  the  foreign  teaching  and  they  are  un- 
willing to  study  and  observe  our  own  religion. 
Is  it  not  a  danger  to  our  doctrine  ?  I  have  heard 
a  European  say  that  if  one  country  adopts  the 
religion  of  another  the  country  will  surely  be  de- 
stroyed. I  believe  it  to  be  true.  Even  foreigners 
entertain  such  a  belief  and  gave  us  the  hint,  and 
we,  the  disciples  of  the  saintly  sages,  must  not 
be  enticed  into  foreign  teachings  which  destroy 
our  venerable  customs  and  institutions.  I  desire 
our  Confucian  followers  to  be  more  diligent  in 
studying  the  Classics,  making  them  their  true  reli- 
gion, and  to  regard  the  new  teachings  as  super- 

252 


^  Korea 

ficial  doctrines.  Thus  they  will  all  become  useful 
vessels  of  the  State  and  accumulate  great  fortunes 
for  the  people." 

'  One  of  the  most  interesting  and  striking  fea- 
tures of  the  Korean  Church  is  its  patriotism. 
Our  belated  coasting  vessel  deposited  us  in  North 
Korea  on  a  Sunday  morning,  and  along  the  Ta- 
tong  River  our  attention  was  called  to  villages  in 
which  on  bamboo  poles,  small  Korean  flags  were 
flying.  Those  flags  marked  the  residences  of 
Christians  or  were  flying  over  churches.  It  is  a 
practice  which  has  grown  up  among  the  Chris- 
tians without  missionary  pressure,  to  run  up  the 
national  colors  over  their  homes  and  churches 
on  Sunday.  They  do  it  to  proclaim  the  character 
of  the  day  and  to  mark  their  own  respect  for  it. 
Some  of  the  leading  Koreans  in  Seoul  have  or- 
ganized an  Independence  Club,  and  have  laid  out 
an  Independence  Park  and  built  an  Independence 
Arch  and  established  an  Independence  Day, — the 
1 6th  day  of  the  seventh  Korean  month,  in  cele- 
bration of  their  independence  of  China  brought 
about  through  the  war.  These  are  the  advanced 
and  liberal  men.  The  reactionary  Confucianists 
hunger  for  the  good  old  iniquitous  days,  and 
Russia  and  Japan  look  on  with  interest.  The 
leading  spirit  in  the  Independence  movement  is  a 

253 


Missions  and  Politics 

Christian.  Most  of  the  patriotic  demonstrations 
made  while  we  were  in  Korea  were  by  Chris- 
tians. In  Pyeng  Yang  they  had  a  great  picnic  on 
Independence  Day.  No  one  else  observed  the 
day.  On  the  King's  birthday,  which  fell  on  Sun- 
day, the  Christians  listened  to  patriotic  sermons 
in  churches  decorated  profusely  with  national 
flags.  The  next  day  they  had  in  Seoul  a  large 
open-air  mass  meeting,  addressed  by  Dr.  Jaisohn, 
the  leading  spirit  of  the  Independence  movement, 
editor  of  the  vernacular  newspaper,  and  a  Chris- 
tian ;  by  the  Mayor  of  Seoul,  formerly  Minister  in 
Washington,  whose  wife  is  a  Christian ;  and  by 
the  assistant  Minister  of  Education,  a  devout 
Christian,  who  with  Dr.  Jaisohn  was  educated  in 
the  United  States,  and  who  was  a  member  of  the 
Korean  Embassy  to  the  Czar's  coronation.  On 
the  last  Sunday  we  were  in  Korea,  another  great 
mass  meeting  was  held  in  a  royal  building,  at 
which  half  a  dozen  spoke,  and  some  of  the 
speeches  ran  in  the  same  fervent  political  strain. 
One  spoke  on  the  text  which  describes  the  apos- 
tolic missionaries  as  men  who  were  turning  the 
world  upside  down,  and  pointed  out  how  in 
Korea  men  had  been  really  standing  on  their 
heads  in  the  mud.     "The  missionaries  have  come 

to  right  things.     Society  must  be  turned  upside 
254 


Korea 

\ 

down.     There  is  no  hope  in  the  upper  classes. 
Christianity  begins  at  the  bottom.     After  all,  a 
man's    a    man,   be  he   king,    noble  or  coolie." 
Then  a  voice  in  the  crowd  said,  "What  kind  of 
talk  is  this  ?"     **  Christianity  is  no  Tong  Hak  or 
rebellious  doctrine,"  the  speaker  went  on,    "it 
teaches  only  to  worship  God,  fear  no  man  and  do 
right."     "Whom  have  we  to  fear.^"  asked  the 
next  speaker.     "Who  is  there  to  trust  except 
God  ?    Great  men  ?    If  you  should  stick  a  knife 
into  them  it  would  hurt  just  as  it  would  hurt  me. 
No,  trust  God  only,  and  we  shall  win.     Christ's 
Kingdom  will  prevail.     Where    is    Alexander's 
Empire  ?    Where  are  Greece  and  Rome  ?    Gone 
utterly.     And  where  is  Christ.?    Ruling  every- 
where.    It  cannot    end    otherwise.     Right    and 
God  and  Christ  will  win."     "There  is  no  rea- 
son," he  added,    "why  we  should  not  expect 
to  see  a  Christian  King  on  the  throne  of  Korea." 
Little  of  such  free  and  stirring  speech  as  this  has 
been  heard  in  Korea  before. 
^  The  reasons  for  this  fervid  patriotism  among 
Ithe  Christians  are  manifold.     One  is  that  Chris- 
tianity has  quickened  and  vivified  the  minds  of 
the  people  and  given  them  boldness  of  speech, 
so  that  they  see  now  the  abuses  of  the  past  and 
the  glory  of  progress,  and  are  able  to  reason  daunt- 

255 


Missions  and  Politics 

lessly  about  such  things.  Another  is  that  Chris- 
tianity is  essentially  an  emancipating  religion,  and 
leads  inevitably  to  the  desire  for  free  government 
and  peace  and  popular  institutions.  Yet  another 
is  that  the  Catholics  have  always  erred  in  the 
matter  of  patriotism,  and  indeed  of  being  guilty 
of  downright  treason  to  Korea.  Coming  out 
into  Protestant  enlightenment  just  at  the  time 
when  Korea  was  being  roughly  hustled  by  Japan 
into  the  paths  of  civilization  pretty  much  against 
her  will;  and  then  seeing  Japan's  grasp  failing 
and  the  country  standing  without  true  heart  or 
sound  mind,  the  Christians  have  been  roused  to 
speak  out  boldly  for  their  King,  but  also  for 
righteous  government  and  just  laws.  A  further 
reason  is  to  be  found  in  the  influence  of  some 
leading  men  who  recognize  that  the  only  hope  of 
the  country  lies  in  the  power  of  Christianity  and 
Christian  education.  One  of  these  said  to  us, 
**  The  only  hope  of  the  country  is  in  the  churches. 
There  is  no  moral  character  in  Korea.  It  is  being 
created  in  the  churches.  There  is  no  cohesion  or 
unity  or  confidence  among  men.  There  is  no 
company  of  men,  however  small,  capable  of  act- 
ing together.  The  churches  are  raising  up  bands 
of  men  who  know  how  to  combine  for  a  com- 
mon object,  who  are  quickened  intellectually,  and 

256 


Korea 

are  full  of  character,  courage  and  hope.  To  con- 
vert and  educate  the  common  people  is  the  only 
hope  of  the  land." 

With  these  two  forces  then,  the  Russian  Gov- 
ernment and  the  Christian  Church  would  seem  to 
lie  the  future  of  Korea.  Will  the  forces  conflict  ? 
Not  at  present.  Perhaps  ultimately  they  will. 
The  Russian  consuls  used  to  tell  the  missionaries 
in  Asia  Minor  that  when  Russia  came  their  work 
would  have  to  stop.  And  there  is  no  room  for 
evangelical  missionaries  in  the  Caucasus.  No 
Russian  Minister  in  Korea  has  yet  taken  such  a 
position,  but  one  of  the  English  papers  in  Japan 
recently  reported  from  a  correspondent  that  Mr. 
Speyer  entertained  "  a  far-reaching  scheme  apper- 
taining to  the  diplomatic  policy  of  the  Land  of 
the  Morning  Calm.  The  very  changeable  atti- 
tude of  the  Korean  toward  foreigners,"  says  the 
correspondent,  the  Minister,  "views  as  being 
mischievous  and  capricious  and  can  only  be  re- 
formed by  the  power  of  the  Church.  He  has, 
therefore,  decided  to  introduce  the  Orthodox 
Greek  Church  and  encourage  Russian  priests  to 
go  to  Korea."  It  was  an  ominous  prospect,  but 
Christian  Missions  are  sure  to  have  free  course  at 
least  for  some  time.  Moreover  while  some 
would  reckon  Russia  among  the  retrogressive  in- 

257 


Missions  and  Politics 

fluences  at  work  in  Asia,  she  stands  for  order, 
protection,  law;  and  her  industrial  ambition  is 
constructing  limits  for  her  political  absolutism, 
while  emancipation  in  some  form,  which  must 
come,  may  make  Russia's  influence  not  so  un- 
favorable to  the  higher  interests  of  the  Asiatic 
peoples  as  has  been  usually  supposed.  One  must 
not  forget  either  that  Russia  has  not  come  yet  to 
herself,  that  the  Slav  is  only  approaching  his 
mission,^  and  that  the  internal  throes  which  are 
before  them  will  make  of  the  Russian  State  and 
of  the  Greek  Church,  forces  wholly  different 
from  those  with  which  we  now  deal  under  those 
names.  And  when  that  day  comes,  though  it 
may  be  through  a  baptism  of  blood  and  of  fire 
perhaps,  there  will  come  out  of  Russia  elements 
of  new  and  holy  power  for  the  reconstructive 
processes  which  are  building  on  toward  the  King- 
dom of  God. 

I  have  sketched  thus  in  outline  the  present  situ- 
ation in  Asia,  the  present  spirit  of  the  peoples  and 
the  present  making  of  its  history,  endeavoring  to 
assign  its  true  place  therein  to  the  force  of  Chris- 
tian Missions  viewed  in  their  actual  present  in- 
fluence and  not  in  their  prophetic  promise. 

•  The  Contemporary  Review,  Jan.  1898,  pp.   1-13,  Art.  "  Tbe  Coming  of 
the  Slav." 

258 


\  Korea 

From  one  point  of  view  such  a  study  as  this  is 
profitless  if  not  dangerous — from  the  point  of 
view  of  the  method  of  Missions.  We  are  ac- 
customed in  our  day  to  seek  for  the  broad  ulti- 
mate effects  of  forces,  and  discovering  them 
often  go  back  to  direct  our  forces  more  ex- 
clusively toward  such  effects.  Jesus'  truth,  how- 
ever, is  a  broad  truth,  "Whosoever  would  seek 
to  save  his  life  shall  lose  it,"  and  it  applies  not 
more  to  individual  life  than  to  some  impersonal 
forces.  Their  greatest  results  are  the  results  for 
which  they  do  not  directly  seek,  which  indeed  they 
ignore,  which  they  would  miss  if  they  did  seek 
them.  It  is  so  with  Christian  Missions.  They 
have  not  aimed  at  sociological  or  political  results, 
but  they  have  produced  them.  They  are  the 
mightiest  force  in  the  world  in  these  directions. 
But  they  have  been  this  because  they  have  never 
sought  and  therefore  have  found.  The  instant 
Missions  ceased  to  view  themselves  as  distinctly 
a  work  of  individual  regeneration  and  fixed  their 
aim  instead  upon  social  or  national  reformation, 
their  power  would  be  gone,  and  they  would  af- 
fect neither  nations  nor  society  nor  individuals,  as 
they  do  now.  And  so  I  say  that  if  we  allowed 
such  a  broad  study  as  this  of  the  place  of  Mis- 
sions in  the  present  making  of  Asia  to  deflect  our 

259 


Missions  and  Politics 

thought  from  the  true  view  of  Missions  as 
primarily  a  work  of  individual  redemption,  and 
the  true  method  of  Missions  as  primarily  a  per- 
sonal persuasion,  we  should  lose  more  than  we 
would  gain. 

There  are  those  who  would  dispute  this  posi- 
tion. They  regard  Missions  as  mass  movements, 
dealing  with  men  in  broad,  social  streams.  This 
is  the  Roman  Catholic  view,  as  it  was  the  Mo- 
hammedan. The  great  object  is  to  commit  men 
by  great  groups,  and  so  to  bring  them  into  con- 
ditions where  educational  influences  can  be  better 
brought  to  bear  upon  them  than  when  detached 
one  by  one  from  the  old  affiliations.  Laying 
larger  emphasis  on  environment  and  the  educa- 
tion of  associations,  those  who  hold  this  view 
strive  to  secure  broad  movements.  They  believe 
that  the  faith  of  children  or  grandchildren  little 
depends  on  the  character  of  the  conversion  and 
motives  of  their  parents  or  grandparents.  As 
Father  Phelan  of  the  Catholic  Church  says, 
"While  a  study  of  dogma  may  bring  a  few 
highly  cultured  minds  to  accept  this  or  that  form 
of  belief,  the  masses  must  be  drawn  by  the  cords 
of  Adam."* 

The  temptations  are  strong  in  our  day  to  draw 

'  The  Independent,  ]dXi.  6,  1898. 

260 


Korea 

Protestants  to  this  same  view.  Some  Missions 
have  succumbed.  A  great  deal  can  be  said  in 
their  defence.  But  in  the  end  it  will  mean  in- 
evitable loss.  The  Good  Shepherd  knoweth  His 
sheep  one  by  one,  by  name,  and  the  Kingdom  of 
God  is  to  rest  on  individuals  redeemed  and 
not  on  the  quicksands  of  multitudes  superficially 
changed. 

*'  Not  sweeping  up  together, 

In  whirlwind  or  in  cloud, 
In  the  hush  of  the  Summer  weather, 

Or  when  storms  are  thundering  ioud, 
But  one  by  one  we  go; 
In  the  sweetness  none  may  know. 

"  Not  pressing  through  the  Portals 

Of  the  Celestial  Town, 
An  army  of  fresh  Immortals, 

By  the  Lord  of  Battles  won; 
But  one  by  one  we  come, 
To  the  gate  of  the  Heavenly  Home. 

"That  all  the  Powers  of  Heaven 
May  shout  aloud  to  God, 
As  each  new  robe  of  Life  is  given, 

Bought  by  the  Master's  blood; 
And  the  heavenly  raptures  dawn 
On  the  Pilgrims,  one  by  one. 

"That  to  each  the  voice  of  the  Father 

May  thrill  in  welcome  sweet, 
And  round  each  the  Angels  gather 

With  songs,  on  the  shining  street, 
As  one  by  one  we  go 
To  the  glory  none  may  know." 

But  if  our  study  is  valueless  as  to  Mission 
method  save  in  this  negative  way,  it  is  not  so  as  to 
Mission  motive.     Not  that  there  is  not  motive 

261 


Missions  and  Politics 

enough  in  the  need  of  men  and  the  command  of 
Christ.  To  whomsoever  these  do  not  appeal  no 
new  motive  can  speak;  but  it  must  be  admitted 
than  neither  in  the  need  of  men  nor  in  the  com- 
mand of  Christ  has  the  Church  yet  found  that 
spring  and  spontaneity  of  motive  essential  to  the 
buoyant  and  immediate  completion  of  her  world- 
wide work.  This  is  her  own  defect.  Perhaps 
the  motives  of  the  need  of  men  and  the  command 
of  Christ  have  been  too  powerful  for  her  appre- 
ciation, and  under  the  awful  burden  of  them  she 
has  sunk  apathetic  and  discouraged.  In  any 
event  there  is  buoyancy  of  motive  here  in  the 
promise  written  all  over  the  face  of  history  and 
the  page  of  prophecy  and  thrust  in  our  eyes  by 
the  politics  of  our  own  day,  that  the  kingdoms  of 
Ihe  world  are  to  become  the  kingdoms  of  our 
Lord  and  of  His  Christ  and  that  He  is  to  reign 
over  them  forever. 

There  is  motive  in  the  glorious  contrast  of  that 
prospect  with  what  exists  to-day,  in  the  false, 
jarring  conflict  of  States  which  call  themselves 
Christian,  among  themselves  and  against  the 
weak  and  defenceless.  It  is  not  necessary  to  go 
further  for  illustration  than  to  Lord  Brassey's 
article  on  *'The  Position  of  the  British  Navy,"  in 
the  January  Review  of  Reviews,  (1898)  in  which 

262 


\  Korea 

he  says :  "To  use  the  words  of  Lord  Dufferin  in 
bidding  farewell  to  the  British  embassy  in  Paris, 
it  has  become  a  national  conviction,  deeply 
rooted,  that  in  spite  of  Christianity  and  civiliza- 
tion no  nation's  independence  or  possessions  are 
safe  for  a  moment  unless  she  can  guard  them 
with  her  own  right  hand."  Looking  upon  our 
so-called  Christian  States  thus  described,  how  de- 
voutly one  prays  for  the  coming  of  the  Prince  of 
Peace,  the  mighty  Counsellor  of  righteousness,  on 
whose  shoulders  the  Government  is  to  be! 
Whatever  movement  promises  that  coming  has 
new  motive  power  for  all  who  listen  with  shame 
to  such  confessions — or  read  with  shame  such  a 
cynical  but  true  statement  of  current  national 
morality  as  the  following  editorial  from  the  New 
York  Evening  Sun  of  April  6,  1898: 

**THE   FUTILITY  OF  PROTEST." 

**It  is  represented  that  a  part  of  the  Japanese 
press  is  disposed  to  criticise  the  Government  for 
permitting  the  annexation  of  Wei-Hai-Wei  by 
England  without  protest.  But  to  what  purpose 
would  the  Government  protest?  The  Japanese 
press  is  said  to  be  so  simple  as  to  base  its  de- 
mand for  protest  on  the  ground  that  Japan  was 
turned  out  of  China  on  the  pretext  that  the  in- 

263 


Missions  and  Politics 

tegrity  of  that  Empire  must  be  preserved;  now 
the  Powers  that  turned  her  out  are  dividing 
among  themselves  the  identical  territory.  It  is 
not  easy  to  have  patience  with  flimsy  puerilities 
of  this  sort,  especially  when  brought  forward  as 
a  basis  for  action.  Japan  should  get  its  '  ^sop ' 
by  heart,  and  inwardly  digest  that  immortal  wis- 
dom. When  the  wolf  gave  reasons  for  dismem- 
bering the  lamb,  his  doing  so  was  an  act  of  re- 
dundant courtesy,  for,  as  a  commentator  has 
pointed  out,  no  obligation  lay  upon  him  to  justify 
his  partiality  for  chops.  So,  when  the  Western 
Powers  alleged  the  integrity  of  China  as  a  rea- 
son for  expelling  Japan,  they  did  so  out  of  an 
excess  of  diplomatic  courtesy.  The  pretext  im- 
posed on  no  one  at  the  time.  The  whole  world 
knew  that  the  Powers  meant  themselves  to  ap- 
propriate the  territory,  and  the  reason  they 
proffered  Japan  was  a  concession  to  the  graces  of 
intercourse,  even  if  it  did  demand  faith  in  the 
phenomenon  of  water  running  up  hill.  The  pre- 
cept, Let  your  yea  be  yea  and  your  nay  nay,  was 
in  the  first  place  directed  against  profane  swear- 
ing; in  the  next,  it  was  addressed  to  persons  in  a 
crude  and  rude  state  of  society;  in  the  third,  it  is 
subversive  of  the  first  and  greatest  of  principles, 
namely,  that  business  is  business. 

264 


\  Korea 

"In  the  intercourse  between  the  Western  and 
the  Asiatic  Nations  there  is  and  there  can  be  but  a 
single  fundamental  basis,  that  is,  battleships.  A 
protest  based  on  battleships  is  business;  a  protest 
not  backed  by  battleships  is  the  sort  of  thing  you 
look  for  from  attorneys-at-law,  school  professors 
and  other  common  scolds.  As  a  proceeding,  it 
is  deficient  in  dignity.  Japan  is  not  yet  rich 
enough  to  have  enough  battleships;  she  must 
have  patience.  The  next  seventeen  years  will  do 
much  for  her.  Combining  an  artistic  taste  that 
France  envies  and  copies  with  the  sturdy  tena- 
cious industry  of  England  and  a  frugality  that  is 
Asiatic  and  all  her  own,  Japan  is  accumulating 
capital  hand  over  hand. 

**To  that  purpose  she  must  adhere  steadfastly 
for  the  present — putting  money  in  her  purse.  Not 
until  after  she  shall  have  money  enough  can  she 
have  battleships  enough.  In  that  day  her  '  pro- 
test' will  come  to  stand  for  something.  Mean- 
time, there  is  nothing  for  it  but  to  work  and  save 
and  build  up  the  business.  Get  battleships  by 
ones,  by  twos,  by  threes — they  will  make  a  tleet 
in  the  end.  Grudges  laid  up  now  will  lose  noth- 
ing by  keeping.  Is  there  not  a  fable  showing  a 
lion  and  bear  lying  exhausted,  torn  and  bleed- 
ing on  the  ground  while  the  sly  little  fox  drags 

265 


Missions  and  Politics 

off  the  carcase  of  the  kid  whose  possession  they 
disputed?  Let  Japan  have  patience — patience 
and  shuffle  the  cards,  and  put  money  in  her  purse 
with  steady  inflexibility." 

When  we  turn  to  this  contact  of  Western 
States  with  Asiatic  Nations,  we  feel,  surely, 
more  and  more  deeply  the  value  and  absolute 
necessity  of  the  movement  which  is  preaching 
among  these  Nations  the  Kingdom  of  Righteous- 
ness, and  become  sensible  of  the  motive  power 
its  purposes  contain.  Captain  Mahan  speaks  in  a 
recent  magazine  article,  with  great  conviction  of 
this.  He  calls  attention  in  that  article  to  ''the 
general  outward  impulse  among  all  the  greater 
nations  except  our  own,  shown  in  their  coloniza- 
tions, shown  in  their  efforts  to  gain  territorial 
dominion  in  other  lands;  and  he  speaks  of  the 
coming  together  of  the  Orient  and  the  Occident 
on  the  basis  of  common  ideas  of  material  ad- 
vantage, without  the  sympathy,  the  correspond- 
ing sympathy,  in  spiritual  ideas.  And  here  he 
finds  a  danger,  a  danger  menacing  our  civiliza- 
tion; for  as  he  says  emphatically  the  civilization 
of  modern  Europe  has  grown  up  under  the 
shadow  of  the  Cross,  and  everything  that  is  best 
in  it  still  breathes  the  spirit  of  the  Crucified;  and 
there  is  peril  in  bringing  together  the  East  and  the 

2G6 


\         Korea 

West  on  the  basis  of  common  material  advantages 
(or  political  relationship)  without  this  correspond- 
ence in  spiritual  ideas.  Then  he  adds,  justly 
and  profoundly,  that  if  this  correspondence  in 
spiritual  ideas  is  to  be  attained  it  must  not  be  by 
a  process  of  growth,  but  by  a  process  of  conver- 
sion."^ Whatever  movement — and  there  is  but 
one — promises  to  secure  this  clutches  us  and  our 
Western  Nations  with  the  powerful  motive  of 
self-preservation. 

"I  was  exceedingly  interested,"  said  Bishop 
Creighton  of  the  Church  of  England,  recently,  "a 
little  time  ago  in  going  to  a  meeting — I  think  of 
the  Calcutta  Mission — which  was  addressed  by 
Mr.  Bryce,  who  was  asked  to  address  it  because 
he  had  just  been  to  India,  and  had  seen  some- 
thing of  the  working  of  the  Mission  there.  Well, 
Mr.  Bryce  spoke  with  great  weight,  of  course. 
He  said  that  his  journey  in  India  had  at  least  con- 
vinced him  of  this,  that  unless  England  could 
succeed  in  Christianizing  its  Indian  subjects,  that 
Empire  could  not  last;  that  nothing  else  what- 
ever could  hold  it  together;  that  at  present  there 
were  two  sets  of  lives,  two  civilizations,  two 
races  simply  in  juxtaposition;   that  there  could 

» Address  of  Richard  S.  Storrs,  D.  D.,  before  The  American  Board,  Oct.  14, 
1897,  p.  4. 

267 


Missions  and  Politics 

be  no  real  interfusion  of  the  two,  and  no  real 
possibility  of  either  one  understanding  the  other, 
except  on  the  religious  side;  that  unless  you  try 
to  understand  men  as  religious  beings,  you  do 
not  get  on  from  any  other  side  at  all.  For  there 
is  the  root  of  their  life,  the  root  of  everybody's 
life — it  must,  after  all,  be  his  religious  ideas. 
However  debased  his  religion  may  be,  you  can 
only  understand  a  man  through  his  religious  life, 
and  benefit  him  by  giving  him  a  right  religious 
idea.  There  is  no  other  way  of  benefiting  man- 
kind at  all.  All  else  is  simply  from  the  outside, 
and  has  no  basis  of  purpose."  ^ 

But  more  positively,  the  course  of  thought  we 
have  pursued  together  fosters  new  motive  be- 
cause it  shows  to  us  the  rising  walls  and  battle- 
ments of  the  Kingdom  of  God  which  it  is  His 
purpose  to  establish  on  the  earth.  The  precise 
method  of  its  final  coming  need  not  concern  us. 
It  is  enough  that  Jesus  and  His  conquest  are  to 
come,  that  the  King  and  the  Kingdom  of  God 
are  to  be  with  men  and  that  we  can  give  our- 
selves to  their  coming.  *'0f  that  kingdom  we 
are  the  heralds  and  the  pioneers;  to  secure  its 
universal  and  enduring  supremacy  on  the  earth 
is  our  high  task;  not  to  set  up  an  'imperium  in 

*  Qjuoted  in  The  Missionary  Review  of  the  Worlds  March,  1898,  p.  227. 

268 


\        Korea 

imperio '  but  to  lodge  in  human  nature  and  in  so- 
cial institutions  (and  in  the  core  of  life)  through- 
out all  the  continents  and  isles  of  the  sea  such  a 
knowledge  and  love  of  righteousness  (and  of  the 
Righteous  One)  as  to  make  the  world  the  abode 
of  purity  and  peace." 

As  Dr.  Behrends  once  said,  "Our  philosophy 
of  human  life  has  been  altogether  too  meagre. 
Our  estimate  of  history  has  been  singularly  in- 
adequate. (For)  we  have  been  disposed  to  re- 
gard the  present  life  as  full  only  of  vanity,  as 
indeed  it  is  to  him  who  uses  it  mainly  for  eating, 
drinking,  getting  rich  and  being  merry.  But 
now  is  the  accepted  time,  now  is  the  day  of  sal- 
vation. The  future  has  no  dignity  that  does  not 
fill  each  passing  hour,  and  eternity  is  the  pulse, 
the  throbbing  pulse  of  time.  The  last  days  are 
upon  us,  in  which  God  has  spoken  to  us  by  His 
Son.  And,  therefore,  the  present  life  is  not  a 
temporary  scaffolding,  but  the  deep  and  broad 
foundations  God  is  laying  by  human  hands  for 
the  temple  of  His  building;  and  the  history  slowly 
syllabling  itself  ...  is  the  first  and  forma- 
tive chapter  in  the  glorious  records  of  eternity. 
The  present,  prosaic  earth  is  the  territory  we  are 
summoned  to  subdue  to  the  obedience  of  Jesus 
Christ;  the  tenants    ...     (of  eternity)  need 

269 


Missions  and  Politics 

not  be  the  objects  of  our  solicitude,  as  they  cer- 
tainly cannot  be  the  objects  of  our  ministry. 
Here  where  sin  threw  down  the  gauge  of  battle 
and  made  man  an  exile  from  Paradise,  the  con- 
flict is  to  be  fought  out  to  its  bitter  end,  until 
Eden  comes  back  with  a  fairer  and  a  perennial 
beauty,"  .  .  .  the  cry  of  the  poor  answered; 
the  meek  inheriting  the  earth;  every  crushing 
burden  loosed;  every  yoke  of  oppression  broken; 
ignorance  supplanted  by  the  wisdom  whose  be- 
ginning is  the  fear  of  the  Lord;  lust  cast  into 
the  bottomless  pit;  the  idolatries  and  cruelties  of 
paganism  swept  away,  and  its  weak  and  sinful 
people  made  subject  to  the  holy  God,  whose 
voice  is  in  the  thunder  which  rends  the  moun- 
tains, in  the  gentle  breath  of  conscience  and  in 
the  law  which  giveth  wisdom  to  the  simple. 
Under  the  leadership  of  Christ,  "and  with  His 
Gospel  in  our  hands,  we  are  charged  to  found 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  everywhere  and  among 
all  men,  to  supplant  sin  by  holiness,  ignorance 
by  knowledge,  hatred  by  love."^ 

Could  men  find  anywhere  a  grander,  holier 
aim  than  this,  an  aim  more  glorious,  more  full 
of  thrilling  and  divine  appeal  ?  And  there  is  no 
more  solid  and  emphatic  lesson  from  the  pres- 

*  The  Independent,  June  loth  and  17th,  1886. 

270 


\  Korea 

ent  situation  in  Asia  than  that  this  should  be  our 
aim  and  that  God  means  it  to  be  realized.  There 
is  enough  that  is  antagonistic  and  discouraging, 
the  dawn  of  the  day  of  God  may  still  be  far 
away,  but  while  we  build  in  the  heavy  darkness 
of  gloom  and  the  storms  of  strife,  whoso  will 
may 

"  Hear  at  times  a  sentinel 

Who  moves  about  from  place  to  place, 
And  whispers  to  the  worlds  of  space 
In  the  deep  night,  that  all  is  well : 

"  And  all  is  well,  though  faith  and  form 
Be  sundered  in  the  night  of  fear ; 
IVell  roars  the  storm,  to  those  that  hear 
A  deeper  Voice  across  the  storm." 


271 


